Withering Rose in Metrepole
by Kojima Ayumi
Summary: AU, Ran loses his memory. Takatori is winning. Can he overcome the obstacles with his new team together with Schwarz? Or will Takatori overcome them first? Shounen ai, close to yaoi.
1. Chapter 1 to 2

Title: Metrepole  
Rating: PG-13. (I'm too lazy to use the new ratings) Rating MAY change depending on the topics  
Disclaimer: I don't own Weiß, but if you find any characters which doesn't belong in the anime, I suppose they're mine...So please, don't complain, don't sue, don't create a racket...  
Pairings: Unknown yet. When decided, I will put up.  
Summary: (This is centred on Ran, okay?) Ran lost his mermory and is trying hard to find it while seeking revenge against Takatori. His secret terms with Schwarz is left unknown tohis new assassin members. As he struggle to stay sane for some reason, he encounters situations he had never dared imagine.  
Warning: Shounen-ai to the further chapters (that's a guarantee), maybe some OCC-ness somewhere  
Note to readers: Read and review PLEASE... (puppy dog eyes) I know I' would have errors here and there, so please ignore them! Most of the words are translated into German, just to tell you, so please don't come up and tell me they're German, because they are! Okay, please go on to the story. The more reviews I get, the faster I do to be exact. Thanks for coming anyway!

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Metrepole: the congested city where skyscrapers were built to battle the sky for immortality. The tallest of all nestles in the middle of Metrepole, Groß. Consisting the world's largest population, holding over four billion people, the city never sleeps. During the day the streets are filled with people on the way to their destinations. At night, the place lights up as glowing lanterns survey the roads at every turn, creating an art of lights when seen from Heaven's view. The amount of jobs at night equals to those in the day, so the twenty-four hour daily basis shows clearly Metrepole is the place of no silence. 

Hundreds of companies battle to have the best business, but none is even close to attaining the highest standards compared to the Takatori Enterprise. Earning the trust and loyalty of almost half the population of other companies proved this was fatal to the weaker ones. The main businessman: Takatori Reiji. Being more highly regarded than Metrepole's President, this man has the power to both create and destroy.

Zauberei: the magic which exists in Metrepole. Zauberei is considered the strongest and main source of magic compared to other lands. Gifted humans become Hexens and Zauberer where they would train in special schools to attain the highest possible level of learning to use Zauberei. They range from Level A to F, followed by S and the strongest at Z. After attaining the level of B the Hexens and Zauberer are usually referred to as Mages.

Beschatten Sie Leute: They are people who hide themselves in other's shadows, staying almost invisible to the naked eye. Schatten Zauberei is a dark source of magic where sacrificial rituals are mostly made to prove strength and status. This was banned in Metrepole for decades. Those who break the law would receive immediate execution.

Kreuzzucht: Kreuzzucht are those who are mixed in blood combination of two people not in the same category as each other. Kreuzzucht can be considered one of the most dangerous categories depending on how the DNA of the Kreuzzucht is. An imbalance can cause major damage to the brain and make the Kreuzzucht go psychotic and almost unstoppable due to its tough defense against both physically and mentally. Most Kreuzzucht are killed before the age of ten if they show any signs of no control. Only one of a hundred manages to survive though.

Gestalten Sie shifter: According to what it is called, the Gestalten Sie shifter is able to taker form of whatever it has in mind or by touching the object. When it changes, it obtains the same knowledge and skills as whomever or whatever it takes form of.

Jäger: A group of people consisting not more than a hundred, and are usually set as police or bodyguards. They posses few powers of each category, and if truly able to control can be not only dangerous but toughest to defeat. At the moment twenty are in police force, thirty played as bodyguards and the others are not known, probably amongst the average people.

Diamant: Only S or Z level Mage or powerful Schatten are able to posses a Diamant. To transform to a Diamant, the person must be strong-willed, if not, during the two day transformation would fail and both Mage/Schatten and the person meant to be a Diamant would die. The risk is high as the failing causes the _Other_ world, or simply known as Ander to open. So far seven were successful, while the other four were not, causing a total damage of almost fifty percent of the world.

The Diamant is usually pure in the sense that is usually virgin before the transformation. After the transformation is done, the Diamant is whole-heartedly loyal to their owner and at the same time posses almost the same amount of powers as their owner.

**Memory is the core of the mind. Forget your memory and you lose your mind. **

_Omi Tsukiyono_

Omi Tsukiyono gave a big yawn and stretched his arms towards the ceiling while his legs kicked off his blanket. Large blue eyes opened and adjusted to the bright light of the morning sun whose rays flowed into his room from his opened, welcoming window. He gave a large smile to himself and hoped towards his personal balcony, where at the corner sits a pile of sticks and dry glass.

He overlooked the small nest and smiled happily as his secret pet pigeon pair, Pecker and Olivia, greeted him with a 'phrooo' sound. Pecker was the male with a neck of purple and green, and he never ceases to flaunt his courageousness of protecting his nest from the trespassing crows. Omi called him that as that pigeon never hesitates to give the ones he doesn't like a good feel of his sharp beak. Olivia was a quieter and peaceful pigeon which enjoyed the sun a lot, and the vibrant green around her neck made Omi think of Olive color, thus her name.

"Morning you two. Hopefully Ken-kun won't notice if I steal some of his cornflakes for you", he laughed and petted them. They made another low noise as they loved the feel of their new owner stroking them.

For the past months he gained the trust of the pair by feeding them occasionally. The thing Omi thought as a repayment for them was having two baby chicks right at his balcony. Yoji and Ken didn't know, but Aya sure did due to an accident.

The redhead was cleaning up the house when he passed by Omi's room and saw a mess of dried grass about in his balcony, so tried helping to sweep it up. Luckily the blonde was back from school on time to stop Aya from spoiling the nest the two pigeons did. That was that. Aya didn't bother telling the rest of the guys and simply avoided contact with the pigeons.

"Well, I got to go now. See you later guys!" He said and went out of his balcony. He changed from his pajamas into a pair of Bermudas and a plain tee. He exited his room and headed to the toilet to wash up.

Apart from being a Level B Mage, the boy had the talent of picking up things rather fast. With the start of being a hacker since thirteen, he was introduced to being a Zauberer at that age as well. Accepting to be one, he underwent a tough training five times a week for three years. Now he succeeded in being a Mage, but he still had a long way to go. This time he took personal trainings with not only a Mage Kritiker agent, but from Yoji who was also a Mage at level S close to Z.

_Ken Hidaka_

The brunette grunted as the alarm clock by his ear woke him up from his dream. Head not leaving the comfort of his pillow, Ken Hidaka fiddled his hand about the dressing table by the bed and felt about to search for his irritating alarm clock. His hand hit something, and a crashing noise made him shoot up from his bed. He quickly looked over and saw the alarm clock vibrating and still making the ringing noise.

"You never die, do you?" Ken sighed. He picked up the alarm clock with the face the picture of a soccer ball and shut it off. It was given by one of his kids, so why not put it to good use? The rest were pretty much tired always trying to call him up before he either gets late for his soccer practices or his shop shift.

Mornings were terrible to Ken. What could you expect from a Schatten? He was definitely more active at night, as the moon was like his life force feeding him. He was the most active among the four during missions, and if the mission required them to practically climb up the building by stairs, Ken would be more than glad to do it.

Ken hopped off the bed and headed to the toilet which was connected to Yoji's room. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that both doors (god knows why) have no door lock. It was either Ken entering when Yoji's at it or Yoji entering when Ken's using. The first time they moved into this new building, the days and nights never pass without a shout from either side.

Soon both of them got used to it. They learned how to knock with the exception sometimes they happen to forget. It was probably the 'toilet business' the two of them got along slightly better than before.

_Yoji Kudou _

A hand raked his wavy hair as Yoji Kudou heard his next room neighbor enter the washroom from the other side. He adjusted himself to so he could sit comfortably at the end of his bed right next to the wall. He plucked the cigarette which was hanging in his mouth for the past five minutes and tapped it above the ashtray which outside was printed: Don't tell me I'm dead because I already am.

He left the burning stick in the ashtray and folded his arms behind him. Morning again, which meant another day over. Another day over meant a new one where you would never know what would come before you. He hated the thought of wondering what were to happen to him. He never wanted to think about it, but something always tugged his mind towards it.

Being an assassin wasn't exactly the best choice of job but who was he to choose. Asuka was gone. In fact there was no meaning to live if he had to go on without her.

He became a Mage before in his Investigator days so he could protect Asuka. How the hell would he know that it would still happen? He cursed himself for his weakness. The time when Asuka was shot down he was already at Level S. How the hell did he fail? He gritted his teeth and slammed his clenched fist against the wall.

_Ran Fujimiya_

Ran Fujimiya, his real name but his teammates call him Aya. Why he adopted his sister's name was clear to him, but blank to others. Until his sister is awake would he let go of her name. Until the day comes, he would keep her name like a treasure in his heart.

After his sister's accident he could only remember the face of Takatori, and swore revenge against him. That was and will be the first thing on his mind.

What was wrong though, the memory between where he sent his sister to the hospital and how he ended in Weiß. Every time he though of it, it gave him headaches. It was 'just' a headache to him, but his teammates refused to call it a simple one, as he frequently passed-out because of it.

He was pretty clear in his new assassin team he had two powerful Mages, plus a Schatten who was of great use in snagging out information by hiding in another's shadows. He was just a normal human being. End of story.

But whether he was really one no one can be sure.

**Chapter 1: Kitten in the House**

Ken jumped when he heard the wall from the other side gave a loud thump noise. He knew something was always bothering the playboy. Not only him, but the rest of Weiß were all in the same position as each other. The only thing was that they didn't know what the devastating thing was. He knew Omi's one, since the blonde had always trusted him like an older brother turning for comfort. He hoped the older two assassins would open up sometime, and hopefully help each other.

After brushing finish, he slid his toothbrush into the rack and went towards the door facing Yoji's room. With a knock he entered, expectant of the playboy to be lazing around.

"It's your shift today, don't forget or else Omi's going to have a fit", Ken reminded. Only when Ken spoke did Yoji noticed the brunette was in the room. He didn't even hear the door knock.

"Yeah, tell chibi I'll be down in fifteen", Yoji replied and got up from the bed.

"If that fifteen or fifty?" Ken snickered.

Yoji returned a grin. "Don't play with my words. Out", and the next thing Ken knew he was facing the door of Yoji's room.

"I'm serious! I'll side Omi today!" Ken shouted. He heard some muttering noises and smirked to himself. He turned and went past another washroom when Omi came out, scaring the shit out of the brunette.

Omi frowned at Ken's face which was showing an odd expression as if he were a ghost.

"I just came out of the toilet. You needn't give me that face."

"Ha ha, I'm just a little jumpy this morning. Must be those days again…"

"Oh, you mean those where every single itty-bitty thing scares you?" Omi teased.

"Yes, those days. Say more and I'll get you to do my deliveries as well."

Omi pouted. "You wouldn't, Ken-kun!"

"Hm… I think I've done it before…"

"Ken-kun hidoii!" Omi whimpered, making the brunette laugh.

"Oh yeah, where's ice princess?" Ken asked.

That was the name the other guys would occasionally use to refer to Ran. It didn't seem to bother him. First came Mr. Ice, followed by ice prince and since one unfortunate night Yoji mistaken Ran as a girl from the back, ice princess.

"Aya-kun? I don't think he's at home now. At least, I don't think he is."

"I see", Ken glanced at his watch then shouted, "Yoji! You got seven minutes and forty-three seconds!"

"Shut up already!" came from the other side of the hall.

Ken chuckled and the blonde giggled. They often did that to irritate Yoji, since the older one absolutely hated it when you gave him exact time.

"Come on, let's go open the shop. I bet you ten that there are at least ten girls waiting for us", Ken sneered

"Don't be too sure Ken-kun. Too bad for you I know how many people there would be waiting each day, and I say there are seven!"

"Don't be too sure yourself! I'll use that ten bucks of yours to buy ice-cream for the kids."

Omi stuck out his tongue. "I'll use that money to buy for them!"

"Where's the bloody difference?"

"Who wins, and who loses!"

Momoe, their personal shop helper, was already in the shop fixing the flowers even though it wasn't open. The blonde and brunette did the slightly heavier job of opening and to Ken's shock, there were exactly seven people waiting outside the shop, all schoolgirls.

"So, do you want me to put it on your tab, Ken-kun?" Omi giggled.

"So you think you're so smart, I bet another five the next person who enters the shop is a girl!" Ken said proudly.

"That's not fair! If the next person who enters isn't a guy, you'd only give me five!"

Ken returned the stick-out-tongue-thing.

That moment Yoji came in from the shop from the back. Ken and Omi exchanged glances for a minute before Omi gave the brunette a sneaky grin.

"I win! That's fifteen altogether!" Omi laughed.

Yoji gave a questioning look at the two.

"No! Yoji's not counted! I meant customer, Omi!" Ken protested.

Omi raised a finger and waved it side to side.

"You just said whoever entered the shop next! You cheater, Ken-kun!"

"Ladies, ladies. What's wrong with you two?"

"Ken-kun made a bet with me the next person who entered the shop isn't a girl, he'd give me five. Now he's going back on his words!" Omi explained. Yoji raised a fine brow at the both of them and Ken gave a 'heh heh' sound and shrugged.

"Ken, you officially lost."

"Hey! Is that revenge for telling you the exact time?" Ken yelled in a fake, angry tone.

"Partially. Anyway, pity Omi-chu a bit!"

"Yoji-kun, how many times did I tell you only Ken-kun's able to call me that?

"He doesn't use it a lot since he always calls you by your normal name, so why not put it to use, Omi-chu?" Yoji teased.

The schoolgirls in the shop were wildly giggling at the cute name and Omi blushed.

"Yotan! Stop that!"

"Actually, Yoji _could_ use that name…"

"KEN-KUN", Omi growled.

Ken sweat-dropped and shut his mouth.

"Don't need to get angry now, Omi-chu", Yoji said and ruffled the younger blonde's hair, making it a mess.

"Yotan! I just combed my hair!" Omi yelled, frantically trying to swat away the one hand which already caused 'damage' to his hair.

Yoji laughed and left Omi raked his fingers through his hair in attempt to make it back to its previous condition. Ken was apparently laughing at the blonde whose hair almost resembled a bird's nest.

"Hm? Where's ice princess?"

"That's the second time someone asked me", Omi said thoughtfully.

"Oh come on. Don't tell me he's 'out' again?"

"Aya-kun does have a busy schedule you know. Although sometimes he does leave just like that…"

"But he is weird, isn't he? I mean, before him it was only three of us. We were fine that way. Why'd he suddenly join us out of the blue?"

Omi settled a pot of Red Camellia against the shelf and paused.

"He probably has his reasons. Each of us joined Weiß for a reason to fight for. Joining Kritiker is a lifetime thing too."

Yoji and Ken took a while to digest his words.

"Maybe you're right. He doesn't open much though. That could be a bad thing."

"We've been together for a year. Being a you-know-what, it'll obviously take time before he totally trusts us. Until then, none of you to bother him, got it? Plus, don't forget when he seemed to try and think he ends up on the ground unconscious."

The two other assassins tossed each other a look and decided to make fun of Omi. They both saluted and went, "Yes, ex-leader."

"Mou! Don't be so mean you two!" Omi cried.

The three's conversation was interrupted when the bell on the shop's door rang.

In stepped a lady with bright red hair alike Aya's, and her shades were placed above her bangs, all dressed in red with a handbag in on hand.

"Morning boys. I hope my bouquet of the four flowers ready?" She asked.

Manx, Persia's personal secretary.

Omi gave one of his usual smiles and led the way to the back while Ken and Yoji were left back at the shop with a few girls crowding them.

"Alright, ladies. I just remembered we have some new flower stocks from Africa and Kenken and I are going to get it! Care to wait?" Yoji asked and gave one of his playboy smiles.

The girls squealed in delight and all nodded and waved to the guys as they exited the shop through the back, leaving Momoe to take care of it.

**Chapter 2: Schwarz**

Aya walked into the hospital with silent footsteps and his hand tightened slightly around the bouquet of roses in his hands at the sight of his comatose sister. He approached the bed and looked down at her sleeping form. The two plaits on either side of her face were messy again, since there was occasional cleaning of the room. What puzzle him more was how her hair got messy even though the person only cleaned the floor.

With a soft sigh he went to the other side of the bed and placed the roses at the ledge by the window, where a soft breeze brushed through the gaps between the flowers and its leaves. He turned towards Aya and gently tugged both dark green bands from her hair. He immediately got to work typing her long hair into plaits.

While tying her hair, the memory of her when she was five came to him. The youngster loved to play with her hair, and kept telling her brother she would leave her hair all the way until it touched the ground. She loved her hair, but his parents didn't exactly like the fact their daughter needed her hair that long. They forced her to cut her hair until it was barely past her shoulder.

He managed a smile when Aya gave her brother the funny look which was caught between laughing and crying. Hoping to cheer her up, he tied her hair into several plaits. All was learnt from his mother, who taught him to do friendship bands(1). Using the same format, the plaits were eventually done. His parents were shocked to see their little Aya running around the house with at least a dozen of tiny plaits flying behind her.

Unknowingly, Ran finished both sides. He stared down at her hair and frowned. He was caught up with his thoughts, both plaits were uneven. So much for being a perfectionist, he thought wryly. He removed the band from one side and began working on it again. After another attempt he was finally satisfied that both plaits were equal.

/Indeed you are a perfectionist/ a voice clouded his head.

Ran jerked his head up from his sister and scanned the room. There was no one else in the ward except from his and Aya on the bed.

/Behind you/

Following his instinct, he lashed an arm out as he turned, only to get caught at the elbow.

"Tsk, tsk. No need to get all touchy", the German smirked.

A low growl from Ran was the only warning before Schuldich hitched in pain from a knee in his groin.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" Ran snarled, grabbing Schuldich by his collar.

"I –choke- can explain if you put me down", Schuldich uttered.

As much as he didn't believe the telepath, he threw him roughly to the ground. Schuldich took a deep breath and rest his arm on his knee.

"Vather said you'd do that, but I didn't believe him. I guess his visions are never wrong, eh?" Schuldich joked.

"What do you want Schuldich?" Ran snarled.

"You are no fun. Want to go to our place or do you want telepathic speech with Vather? If you choose the second one you've got to carry me home though."

That earned the telepath a smack on his head.

"I take it you want to go to our place", he grumbled.

Ran arrived at Schwarz's place after ten minutes of tolerating Schuldich's yapping. The telepath never seemed to shut up. He wasn't exactly saying it out but more like trying to get Ran into talking to him through their minds since the German knew clearly the redhead wouldn't speak more than ten words even if it killed him.

Despite the nosiness from the telepath Ran felt more comfortable being with Schwarz than Weiß since Schuldich already knew his past, there wasn't a need to say it out and start feeling unhappy. Weiß didn't exactly understand him as much as Schwarz did. He refused to let Weiß know, to be exact. He didn't want them prying into his business.

/Hm? I understand you? That's so touching kätzchen…ow, ow, ow/

Ran started pulling at the long, orange hair as he entered into Schwarz territory. The place they lived in wasn't the best cover, but was definitely convincing they looked like normal citizens/residents. The condominium called 'Oleander Towers' (2) was meant for large families, and to Ran the double-stories of the condo was sometimes at a waste just to fit four people. In reality there were eight six rooms, and if a party was to be thrown it could probably fit over fifty people. Not to mention the penthouse was the size of one level, making a total of three stories.

In the bubble lift (which reminded Ran of a business building instead of a housing estate), Schuldich was comforting his poor, mistreated hair while Ran looked out of the lift. His stomach churned a little because of the rising height, and decided to look away.

The door opened with a loud chime-ring noise and both exited. Five more steps and they were facing the front door of the place. To Ran's right the emergency door was well blended with the beige color of the walls.

Schuldich rang the doorbell.

From inside Ran could hear the familiar rings and soft footsteps. The door clicked and both of them entered.

"Oh yeah. Shoes. Don't know what his Bradley and now he wants us to remove our shoes before going in", Schuldich said.

Ran raised a brow but did as he was told. Putting it against the wall he gazed into the brand new apartment and the first thing he saw was the living room with the same, old, large TV affixed against the wall which was brought here from their previous place. The velvet couch new and alike the one at the shop was placed in a nice 'L' shape surrounding the television.

A soft ruffle of socks and Ran turned to face a brunette.

Nagi had his arms crossed and was resting them against the stairway's railing. The telekinetic nodded a 'hi' and Ran did the same as well.

The two never seemed to need words to communicate, and that made it all much easier. Speaking of which Nagi was a Schatten, Schuldich was a Gestalten Sie shifter and Crawford was a Jäger. Farfarello was a normal psychopath (although there isn't anything normal of a psychopath) which was taken in by Schwarz regardless of him having no gift but the ability of feeling no pain.

"Hey Nagikins, where's Bradley?" Schuldich asked as he took off his shoes.

Nagi showed a thumb to the inner hallway towards 'the' room.

The guys pretty much moved in when Ran joined Weiß, and knew this house almost the same as the shop's. 'The' room(3) was where Schwarz used to receive information from Estet, the organization they were from. He was forbidden to go in there most of the time, but he didn't really care.

"Now, what would he be doing in there?"

"Something regarding the next mission. Estet gave him a call this morning saying they would present him the report of Takatori."

At the sound of the name Ran hated most, he walked into the hallway without any consent.

"Whoa, hold it Ran. Yes, we agreed to get Takatori for you, but that takes time. Leave Bradley alone or Estet would know you're there and force us to kill you." Schuldich said and grabbed onto the redhead's shoulder.

Ran gave a growl and shrugged the hand off angrily.

"He's right, Ran. Anything you do in this household may endanger your life", Nagi said coolly.

Ran sniffed at the thought. The reason why Schwarz was nice to him was unknown but Crawford usually told him he would find out someday. Event though they were meant to be enemies, he trusted them as well as earning their trust. To not let Weiß know his secret, they had all decided when they met in the battlefield; they meet as enemies, not allies. There was a limit though, neither group were to kill each other.

When and how they became partially allies, Ran could not remember. The only one who seemed to know was Crawford, but the precog refused to tell no matter how much he tried asking. He was reluctant to, but dropped the subject of how they knew each other. So far, he had been with Schwarz for almost a year, roughly the time he entered Weiß. The time after Aya went into a coma and the time he started being an assassin was forgotten. The more he thought of it, the more headaches it gave him.

Ran took a seat on the couch while Schuldich took the one on the other side.

"Want anything to drink?" Nagi asked. Ran thought for a second and stood up.

"Don't busy yourself. I'll get it myself."

"Get for me too kätzchen!" Schuldich's voice echoed as Ran followed Nagi to the kitchen. The brunette rolled his eyes as Ran snorted.

"Get it yourself, schwein", Ran muttered. Well, whether he spoke it out loud or thought it, Schuldich would know.

Victory was sweet when Ran heard Schuldich whining about Ran being a baddie in the living. Nagi seemed satisfied with it, and gave a hidden smile.

/You guys are two peas in a pod. One day I'm going to eat you two/

/TRY/ both of them replied telepathically, then stared at each other.

They could hear Schuldich's voice laughing in their heads.

Ran ignored Schuldich's self-amusement and poured a glass of cold water for himself. Nagi had a different choice in drinks, and was some-what addicted to F&N Orange Juice. Ran always saw him drinking that no matter where and when.

"Where's Farfarello?" Ran asked all of a sudden.

The brunette took a few seconds to digest the question for some reason.

"He's inside his room. You want him out?"

"No. Just wondering…"

"Kätzchen! Bradley's out!" Schuldich shouted.

Ran went out of the kitchen, leaving Nagi to enjoy his drink.

When Ran came out he found Schuldich lying on his stomach taking up three quarts of the longest sofa. Crawford was seated where Ran was seated before and now he wondered where he was supposed to sit.

/Hm… you could sit with me/ Schuldich said.

Ran tossed a glare to the German who smiled sheepishly back at him.

/Not on my life/

"Schuldich. Get your butt to one side of the couch and stay there", Crawford said dangerously. The German gave a snort and scuttled to the further end of the couch. Only then did Ran move in and sit at the one closer to Crawford.

"Estet wants to get rid of Takatori as soon as possible as well. The good thing is he is on our list of 'to be killed', but the bad news for you is it might take another month the earliest."

Crawford watched as Ran clenched his fists.

"I understand", Ran trailed off. He caught sight of the clock which was hanging above the television and gave a slight gasp. "I have to go now. I'm late for ten minutes."

"You mean that new shop of yours? What's it called…? Kätzchen im Haus?"

"Flower shop." Ran grunted and headed towards the door. "Don't come down."

"Nagi, do send Ran off just to make sure the security guard doesn't try hitting on him."

Ran felt his blood boil the same way towards Takatori at the thought of the security guard. That asshole has an itching butt who kept trying to get Ran to go out with him. Unless another person was with him, that insolent prick would probably drag Ran off for who-knows-what.

Nagi agreed without hesitating and sent Ran out.

* * *

The two pigeons! Yes, they are real existing pigeons and they live under my aircon generator. -.-lll The truemeaning of Pecker's name was because he kept knocking the generator while eating. 

(1) Freindship bands. Okay, if you have no idea what it is, I'll tell you. In my country we do friendship bands to sybolise, duh, friendship. It's about six strings where you tie them like plaits.

(2) Oleander Towers. You know the flower Oleander? Well, truthfully, Oleander Towers is where I stay. It's a condo, but it's only one story. I made it double story in this fic because it reminded me of my friend's house which was double-story.

(3)Remember that vortex looking like room in the anime? Yeah, just like that one.

My love to you for reading! Just in case, people. I'm still doing Siberian in the House. No worries, okay? Please read and review. Oh yeah. I know it may be confusing at first, but I promise the story unfolds soon. I'll see if I can answer any of your questions, but in the meantime, please review! All would be taken into consideration. (Hey, I know my english isn't that good, but I'm trying. I apologise for any spelling, grammer etc errors)


	2. Chapter 3 to 4

Title: Metrepole  
Rating: PG-13. (I'm too lazy to use the new ratings) Rating MAY change depending on the topics  
Disclaimer: I don't own Weiß, but if you find any characters which doesn't belong in the anime, I suppose they're mine...So please, don't complain, don't sue, don't create a racket...  
Pairings: Unknown yet. When decided, I will put up.  
Summary: (This is centred on Ran, okay?) Ran lost his mermory and is trying hard to find it while seeking revenge against Takatori. His secret terms with Schwarz is left unknown to his new assassin members. As he struggle to stay sane for some reason, he encounters situations he had never dared imagine.  
Warning: Shounen-ai to the further chapters (that's a guarantee), maybe some OCC-ness somewhere  
Note to readers: Read and review PLEASE... (puppy dog eyes) I know I would have errors here and there, so please ignore them! Most of the words are translated into German, just to tell you, so please don't come up and tell me they're German, because they are! Okay, please go on to the story. The more reviews I get, the faster I do to be exact. Thanks for coming anyway!

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For the past three hundred years there were three main organizations which stood strong for Metrepole. They were set up by the first pioneers who sailed the Seven Seas to reach this place while escaping the World War Three. From what used to be a desert, now it was built like the second NYC. They were the important pillars of the place which was built in the form of the Devil's Triangle or better known as the Bermuda Triangle; once you enter, is was almost impossible to get out.

Each organization was made to control a corner of the place, but due to greed, the imbalance of power caused internal conflicts to ties.

Estet was in charge of the left-side, called Miami, and took care of the southern-west side of Metrepole. Near that corner, an island was located further down where it was said the three SZ elders, also the leaders of Estet, stayed.

The Takatori Enterprise was a family business running down far more generations compared to anyone else. The passed down talents of being a Mage together with the knowledge makes it a tough organization to counter. They own the middle part of the triangular, Bermuda, and had the largest section of the city to take care of.

The last corner of Metrepole was Puerto Rico, where Kritiker has set its organisation. The leader of Kritiker was Persia, the cat lover whom among the three groups, stands to justice's side the most. He believes the Takatori Enterprise has gone too far and had set up several groups where each was assigned to different situations. Now, Weiß is the group which he has an eye for as it could be the key to throwing Takatori off his position.

At the moment he has numerous groups working undercover, and the few common ones are Weiß Kreuz, the assassin group, Tropisches Wetter, a group of highly trained undercover agents, Blaue Löcher, the second assassin group which is at times assigned to finding information and Weißer Dunst, a fixed group of Schatten which are sent to find information. A group he lost a year ago was Crashers, where they were meant to not assassinate, but to follow their name, to ruin and crash 'parties' not meant to exist.

**No one can be there to help you unless you help yourself first.**

**Chp 3: Mission One**

"As you can see, this 'Human Chess' is under Takatori, partially under Estet. We cannot use direct actions against him. We need you to get in there to find the one behind all it. During that time, I suggest you be careful, as Takatori has Schwarz as his bodyguards", Manx said hastily and paused when she heard footsteps. She turned with a scowl on her face and watched as Abyssinian descended form the spiral stairs.

"I think you should learn how to be here when needed, Abyssinian. You know I do not repeat myself", Manx said. Ran gave no heed to what she had said; only taking to standing on the wall beside the stairway. Manx cleared her throat before she continued. "As I was saying, Schwarz would be there, so mind your backs. Everyone in?"

"I think I'll pass this time", Yoji said. "I'm not exactly in the mood for doing missions at the moment."

Manx nodded and waited for Balinese to exit the room. When he was out of sight, she handed the folders to Omi.

"If Balinese isn't in, I suggest you decide who's going into the game. Preferably Abyssinian or Siberian, since Bombay has to deal with the other things. With all that boys, I'll send myself out. Oh yes, one more information we've dug out. Takatori is attending several such activities in search of a Diamant."

Two gasps echoed the room with the sounds of Manx's high heels clogging their way out of the mission room.

"Well, I'll be damned. If Takatori ever gets a Diamant, we're doomed", Ken said out loud. Omi nodded while reading through the information he got.

"Wait, we don't have the target's photo. The only way we'll be able to identify is through a scar across the forehead. It's a hidden scar to be exact. Under the Versteckt spell, I can definitely tell you guys this person could be a Mage."

"Great. You're the only Mage in this mission but you have to deal with the computers. So, I guess I'll the one to-"

"I'll do it", Ran said flatly. The other two looked over their shoulders with a disbelieving look.

"No offense, Aya, but you don't exactly have any Zauberei", Ken reminded.

"It won't be a problem", the redhead finished and left the room.

The brunette and blonde tossed each other a questioning look and Omi sighed. He passed the folders for Ken to browse through and wondered aimlessly.

"Have you ever wondered why Aya was able to join Kritiker?" Ken asked all of a sudden.

Omi could only stare at the question and watched as the brunette closed the folder.

"I mean, ninety-five percent of Kritiker agents are at least under one category. The normal ones usually do other things. You know, find information, this and that, but Aya's an assassin. Don't you think that's weird?"

"Well, I heard Aya's been in Kritiker for three years now, and that excluding this year he was with another group. Something unfortunate came up though. Two from his previous group were killed and two managed to survive. From that day the group disbanded and he was placed in Weiß."

"What's the previous group called?"

"Crashers, I think. I'm kind of worried. Do you think his attitude now was because of their death?"

Ken smacked his forehead.

"Omi! You should have told Yoji and me this the first time he came into Weiß! Do you know how many bruises we got just from asking him?"

"Hey! It isn't my fault! How was I to know you guys didn't know?"

Ken rolled his eyes and tossed the folder onto the coffee table.

"I know, how about you stay in Aya's shadow?"

"HA! Very funny Omi. You know it hurts if you're in someone's shadows because you get stepped on every second.(1)"

"But Ken-kun", Omi said seriously. "If you know the target knows Zauberei and Aya-kun's just a normal person, what would you do?"

Ken frowned back at the blonde's face.

"Alright, I'll do it. But if Aya finds out I'm saying it's you."

Omi gave a cheerful smile. "Thank you, Ken-kun", and the brunette grumbled.

Ran grunted at the thought of the next mission. He didn't feel like taking part of anything in the first place. He hated killing. Why he ended up in Weiß was still a big mystery to him. He was fine in Crashers, since they required no one to kill, but just to crash the parties of the others. He wanted to quit after Crasher was brought down, but remembering Kritiker was the life-time thing, he avoided telling Persia that.

He didn't really spoke to him face to face, but through the phone. The voice which was deep and husky he remembered clearly. He asked whether he could join other groups, say Blaue Löcher, but was immediately declined. He was highly skilled and Persia did not want to waste his abilities to just finding information.

From what Persia said, he would be of more help if he was in Weiß than he would be in others. He said they would help him and he could help them as well. Well, he'd agree, and now he was with people who did not understand him a single bit. He was definitely better off with Crashers. Yuushi obviously knew him better than anyone else, and that blonde was too nosy to be pushed away. Even so, Omi was a bit like Naru, and both almost an exact replica of each other; Omi being the mother hen of the group.

The redhead heaved a sigh as he walked up the stairs towards his room. He was getting tired of this. Because he was staring down at the steps, he had not noticed that a blonde playboy was leaning against the wall where the railing met. It was only after he caught the scent of cigarette his head shot up to see Yoji's.

"So, you're the one going in?" He asked, taking a drag.

"None of your business."

Just as Ran was about to walk pass the blonde, Yoji stretched his arm out. Stunned by the sudden arm blocking his way, he turned and glared at the other assassin.

"Hand."

Slightly confused but not showing it, he lifted his arm and has his hand palm-up, and Yoji's clenched fist opened. Ran stared down at the watch Yoji frequently used as a weapon.

"I suspected it would be you. Anyway, use that. It's been placed with a Zauberei, so don't play with it. At the same time I can help you if you're in trouble even if I'm not there." He finished and walked off, not even bothering to listen to what the redhead has to say.

/Weird person, don't you think/

/Busybody./

/I agree./

/I mean you, Schuldich/

/Ch. I thought you were meaning Kudou. So, I see your next mission you're going to meet us…/

/Hn/

/You always say that. Anyway, from what Vather predicted, my oh my, get a band-aid ready/

/Hn./

/Your friend's minds are hard to read…/

/Two are Mages, one is a Schatten./

/Great, thanks for telling… Anyway, I'd suggest later during your mission you'd better bring Kudou's watch/

/Hn/

/Ja. Catch you later/

Schuldich slipped away and left a hollow feeling at the back of his mind. The thought of visiting his sister before his next mission crossed his mind. He slipped quietly into his room and the first thing he did was take a glance of the clock on his table which read seven forty-nine in the bright green similar to those which glowed in the dark.

The mission would start at twelve. He had more than enough time to go back and meet her. Grabbing his coat which was on his bed, he was about to leave the front door when Omi noticed the redhead.

"Aya-kun? You're going out?"

The redhead barely gave a nod.

"If that's the case, could you drop by at the supermarket to get these few ingredients? If you don't mind that is", Omi said, pulling out a folded piece of paper from his back pocket.

Ran blinked at the piece of white paper and received it.

"Thanks! Ken-kun has a soccer game on and I have to do my homework. Yoji-kun's too lazy too", Omi waved and trotted away from the door and up the stairs.

Ran stared down at the piece of paper and shoved it into the pocket of his coat.

He would make the trip to his sister first before the supermarket, he decided.

He stood by his sister's side for half an hour, speaking to her as if she listened. To him it didn't matter, he just needed someone to speak to. As he left the hospital, he was greeted by Matsuo Makoto, the doctor in charge of Aya.

Makoto was roughly thirty-nine and had relatively short brown hair with glasses he need not use at all since his vision was perfect, but according to a fortune telling his looks were to frightening and should put on spectacles to make him look more soft. He was slightly taller than Ran, with a well-built body from his army days. He had known Ran for the past four years ever since his sister was admitted into the hospital.

The older man recently became a doctor for eight years and previously was working as a commando in boot camp for four years. What was weird though, once he started even before working in boot camp he decided to become a doctor and spent eleven years studying.

"I'm getting off work now. How about I treat you to coffee?" Makoto asked.

Ran remained silent as the doctor removed his coat, placing onto his seat.

"I know somewhere nice", he continued.

"I need to go off", Ran said emotionlessly and went out of the room.

Just before stepping out of the door, a strong hand grabbed onto his wrist. Ran glared at Makoto as the other pulled him along. He tried collecting his hand back, but failed to when the grip tightened.

"I suggest you follow, Fujimiya." Makoto paused in his tracks and let go of the hand and turned to Ran. "It's regarding your sister."

Ran immediately stiffened. He considered for a moment before nodding in agreement to follow. That moment something hit the back of his lower leg and he glanced down. A fading blue color ball lolled about on the floor and his attention shifted to a dark-haired girl about the age of seven walking towards him with her hands low. One of her hand was brushing against the wall and Ran knew she was blind and obviously searching for her ball.

He bent and picked up the ball and walked towards the girl. She seemed to have noticed someone was before and she paused. Ran brought the ball to her hand and she hesitated before receiving the ball.

"Onii-chan! Jun onii-chan, is that you?" She asked happily, holding the ball tightly with both her hands.

Ran's expression softened and patted the girl's head.

"I'm not your brother."

The girl gave an unhappy look and turned to walk away.

"Her brother was just like you, working hard to keep her alive, but he hasn't been coming here lately. She misses him a lot."

Ran could only watch as the girl sadly follow the walls and back to her ward.

They went to the nearby shopping mall where Makoto brought the redhead to a slightly crowded café by the side of the mall. They took a seat by a window and Makoto went off to buy the drinks.

Ran stared blindly outside and watched the cars zoom past each other skillfully. Metrepole had always been this crowded. He sighed as the cars reminded him of the worst incident which happened to him.

"_Aya! Slow down Aya!" Ran shouted as he tried to keep up with his sister. Despite her wearing a tight kimono, the girl had the energy to take quick steps and Ran had a problem catching up._

"_Mou, onii-chan! You're so slow!" Aya giggled and went through the park which now was having a festival and shops stretched across the Sakura Gardens, where the pink flowers were genetically reformed to bloom all year round. There were seldom green trees in the park, so it was nicknamed the 'Rosa Hana'._

_Aya's clog made clicking noises as she paced down into the park, searching wildly for a perfect birthday present. There shops of various, and she was considering whether she should ask her brother to catch goldfishes or win a game of shooting to get a toy or such. She was really excited since it was the first time she was able to come out alone with only her brother, since their parents were awfully protective and refused to let her come out until she was sixteen._

_Aya browsed through the shops when something glittered which caught her full attention. _

"_Onii-chan! Look, look!" Aya squealed and pointed to a pair of long, golden earrings. Ran frowned at the sight of it._

"_Are you sure you want that? Why don't you get something like a book?" _

_Aya frowned back at her brother._

"_That's what you like! It's my birthday and I want that!" Aya stamped her foot like a child._

_Ran laughed and ruffled the top of her head, a squeak escaping from his sister._

"_But of course. I agreed to buy you anything, didn't I?" Ran laughed again as his sister half-frowned and half-giggled._

_They hanged around the place until it was past evening when the sky got rather dark. Since neither of them bothered to bring an umbrella, the duo decided to return home, only to meet up with a drizzle on the way back. _

"_We'd better move faster!" Ran suggested._

"_Ne ,onii-chan! What'll you like to eat when we get back?" Aya asked as she carefully made her way along the path, avoiding puddles which had started to form._

"_Hm, shall we ask otousan and okaasan to bring us eat hotpot?" _

"_Great idea! I'd love to eat the one from Osten Street!" _

"_I think so too!"_

"_Ne, onii-chan! Carry me home! The rain's getting my kimono wet!" Aya joked. _

"_You're too heavy!"_

"_Hey! That's mean! Are you saying I'm fat?" Aya pouted._

"_Yes, you are my fatty little sis!" Ran teased back and moved faster as Aya swung her handbag, fully intending to whack her brother._

_The siblings raced into their Japanese style home and Aya wasted no time taking off her clogs._

"_Tadaima!" Ran shouted as Aya did the same as she made her way into the house. "Sorry we took so long! Even after Aya got her present, she insisted--"_

_He got cut off by his sister's scream. Not bothering to take off his shoes, she sprinted into the living to find Aya pale and frozen with wide eyes. He turned his head over to see his father and mother sprawled on the ground in a bloody heap._

"_Otousan! Okaasan! Aya! Call the ambulance!" Ran said in a panicky voice as he crouched beside his parents, calling to them softly to wake up. Aya was still too shocked to move to see her parents in such state._

_Ran froze when he heard ticking noises. It didn't sound like the one in the living room which resembled the old Big Ben, but it sounded more like—_

"_Aya! Run!" Ran shouted. Aya stared blankly back at her brother. "AYA!" _

Ran hissed when a sharp pain tore through his brain. He could always remember until this part. Why was he unable to recall the rest? He had never tried a psychologist, but he didn't want it anyway. He had asked Schuldich to help before, but the telepath failed as well, saying that something was keeping him out from finding.

He jerked back to reality when he heard a soft clank of glass to glass and saw a cup of steaming coffee in front of him.

"Here, my treat. Try it", Makoto said nicely, offering the cup.

Ran gave a slight nod as a response and stared into the contents of the cup.

"What is it about my sister?"

Makoto took a sip from his own cup of coffee and placed it on the table and gave a sigh.

"It's been four years, Ran. I've done my very best to let the hospital allow your sister stay for that long. Some time ago we had a meeting, and the head said we would have to put your sister down in a few months if she doesn't wake up. I tried to help, but there was nothing I can do."

"I'll send her to another hospital."

"Other hospitals don't accept comatose people, Ran. It's not as simple as you think. Look, I'll try extending it to a year, but only one. That's the best I can do to help. I've known you for years, and you're no different from Taiki."

Ran rose up from his seat and was about to leave when a strong hand grabbed his wrist.

"Remember, Ran. I don't want you to suffer what I've been through."

Ran refused to turn back to the doctor.

"Aren't you going to drink the coffee?"

"I don't drink it. If you'll excuse me."

Ran left the doctor alone back at the table and he made his way down to the supermarket a floor down below.

Makoto watched as the redhead disappeared from view and he sighed. He suddenly felt his pocket vibrate and he picked his hand phone out, pushing a button to receive the call.

"Masahiro! I thought I told you to report at eight in my office?" A deep voice said angrily through the phone.

"My apologies, something came up. I'll be there in ten minutes, Mr. Takatori."

Ran started browsing through the list which contained about seven items, words written neatly in Omi's handwriting. The last one was messily added in and Ran could tell it was from Ken by looking as how it was written, plus what the item was. He began considering which item to get first, in the meantime carrying around a green basket.

He collected the items easily and wondered why were the items so familiar. Shrugging to himself, he paid for the groceries and headed back to the shop by foot.

**Chapter 4: Human Chess**

The human chess building was about ten stories high, but inside only stated seven. In the shape of a pentagon in the middle of the crowded city of tall buildings, one wouldn't be able to suspect what was going on inside. The ground floor was further more built like a normal business building. It was the second floor where the large board eight by eight black and white squares remain, filling up most of the level.

The third floor had two bridges, the VIP lounge, where the person playing would sit, controlling the keypad to send out his pawn. The rest of the floors stood spectators behind glass, witnessing the entertainment going below. Apart from the human chess, there were casino and card games which some played when they lost interest of the human chess.

Omi warned Ken before entering to never use Zauberei, since the building was highly protected with security wards who also knew the magic. Now Omi depended on his hacking ability to gain control of the place.

Ran was on the first floor, and to his surprise, behind the counter up front was just a plain outside cover. He was lead by a woman wearing her business suite, but also wearing a feathered hat. This time Ran had to dress normally, just putting on a plain white top which was a turtleneck, and his long sleeves were folded to his elbows. The hem of the top was long and it covered all the way and past the waistline of his jeans.

"You know, we don't usually take in newcomers that quickly, but we're short of pawns so you'll have to do", she smiled evilly. "Here's the catch: for every one that you defeat, you get fifty thousand, although not many people manage to survive more than two rounds."

Ran ignored her and followed as she unlocked open a door which revealed a dark passageway, but his eyes adjusted quickly and saw that in a short distance away there was a room where people were seated and standing around in the room. They were of all ages, and if Ran could tell correctly, a few were probably only Omi's age. They were carrying all sorts of weapons, from metal poles to large swords. In his hand was his katana, but had a gun slot into his jeans at his waist. Smaller daggers were hidden at either side of his boots as well.

"You just wait here. When the game starts, a loud ring will go off."

Ran nodded and he moved towards an empty wall and lay back against it. He waited for ten minutes before an ear piercing ring sounded through the entire room. A security guard dressed in blue starting ordering people to stand at specific places, when he heard a low grumble of a machine. Two openings were formed and two people rose to the battleground. Ran watched as they surfaces to the upper level and heard the crowd roar.

Behind someone pushed him forward, and he turned around to glare at the security guard.

"Aya-kun, if I'm not wrong you are roughly going up in two rounds. Get ready!" Omi's soft voice spoke through the communicator in his ear.

Ran replied a 'roger' and waited as he heard one person from above cried out in agony of defeat. The spectators went wild and another person was sent up.

/Ran, you feeling okay/

/Hm./

/Bradley and I are watching the game going on beside Takatori. You're going up next. Be careful/

A gunshot rang in his ears and Ran suspected it was over for one above. He jumped when he felt the floor below him shook. He steadied himself as he entered the arena thousands of people clearly shouting to kill the opponent.

"Hey, hey, give a good show pretty, and I'll treat you to something good later", a beefy old man at the VIP lounge shouted at Ran. The redhead returned a scowl as the crowd laughed in humor.

He turned to the other person, a brunette, holding a gun in front with one hand In another hand a yellow staff as long as his katana. The other seemed to have noticed someone standing at the other side of the VIP lounge, since he was practically ignoring his opponent. Ran followed his gaze to someone he hated.

The other turned to face Takatori Reiji, his two bodyguards and the woman who escorted him to the room, holding his staff up.

"Takatori! I'm Jun and I seek revenge against you!" He shouted in a loud, confident voice.

Jun? Isn't that the girl's brother's name? Ran thought quickly.

He gasped when he felt a flow of Zauberei flow through the arena as the boy chanted. Jun threw the gun aside and held the staff pointing downwards with both hands. He shouted a word and jammed the staff into the ground, followed by scrapping it across to create an opening.

"Aya-kun! Get out of there! He's summoning a Dämon from the Ander Plane!" Omi shouted through the communicator.

Ran watched horror-stricken as a red, clawed hand emerged from the opening, followed by a creature three times the size of his burst through the floor, screeching as it came alive. It had a wolf like mouth with enormous fangs dripping saliva and its red beady eyes showed nothing more than evil, searching the room for a prey. It didn't have any hind legs, only support its smoke like body with the two in front. Rows of scalpels traced along its back like a porcupine

The people from other floors screamed and shouted as they escaped the building, but Takatori stood his ground, staring down at the demon as if it were nothing.

Jun shouted another word, pointing his staff at Takatori. The creature immediately followed the order and charged towards the lounge in a circular movement. It was fast, but Crawford was faster. In a flash he was standing in front of Takatori and raised his hand, palm facing the demon which approached him.

"Rückkehr", he said calmly. The creature cried in confusion as it was sent to attack yet being ordered to go back by another.

Schuldich stood beside Crawford and smirked.

"Hören Sie zu. Töten Sie", Schuldich ordered.

The Dämon immediately raced back at the one who summoned it, jaws wide open to attack.

Ken slipped out of Ran's shadows, causing a slight shock to the redhead.

"Schild!" He shouted as it dived as Jun, but it was too late. The demon raced past even before the shield was formed, ripping Jun's body into shreds with its jaws.

Ran wasn't even concentrating on the huge thing which was bringing down the place. He pulled out Yoji's wire and had it wrapped around a pole near the lounge, launching himself up into the air.

The woman yelled as Ran stepped onto the edge of the lounge. Crawford and Schuldich were faking to protect Takatori, which was now Ran's target. He removed his katana from its cover and charged, passing the woman and straight at Schwarz. Crawford was ready and so was Schuldich as Ran raced up to them.

He heard Ken shouted and Omi yelling through the communicator to tell him to stop.

It was a second later Ran felt a brush of wind, followed by receiving a sharp pain at his side. He crumbled to the ground, shocked, hand moving to his waist where he felt something warm his shirt was soaking up. Looking down, blood was heavily leaking out of a wound which was sliced but something finer than scalpel. He coughed as blood forced itself out of his mouth, spilling onto the ground.

"Mr. Takatori. Let us leave shall we?" Crawford said coolly.

"Hm, I think we should."

"Matte…" Ran growled, pushing against the ground to get himself up.

He was ignored as the two bodyguards lead Takatori out of his sight. He heard a gun cock and he looked over his shoulder.

"This is ruining my fun, you little pest!" The woman cackled.

Ran noticed beneath her hat glowed with a green light of some sort.

The target.

But he was too weak to move.

He shut his eyes when he saw her pull the trigger, but opened again when he heard her scream.

Ken had his claw dug into her upper back and with little effort slashed downwards, ending her life easily.

"Abyssinian! Are you crazy! Takatori isn't the target" Ken hissed.

"No time for that guys! We still have the Dämon to take care of!" Omi interrupted.

Ken cursed and helped the redhead to his feet, laying again the lounge wall.

"Omi! Provide back up!" Ken yelled.

The brunette stood in front of the creature and raised both his hands.

"Disciple of shadows

Learner of darkness

I, the vowed Schatten

Protect now the goodness

Beyond where lightning strikes

Before when thunder booms

As certain the sun arises

As blunt as there are two moons"

The red Dämon reacted to the chanting and headed straight for the brunette, claws in front to attack. That moment Omi cast his shield to prevent it from getting at his teammate. The creature cried out as it bounced off the shield.

"Hell's harbinger

Ander's messenger

We forbid your stay

Return to never!"

Ken shouted and pointed at the Dämon. From the crack from the ground which was formed by Jun before, a white smoke came out and grabbed the creature by its legs. It screeched as it struggled out of the fog's grasp. Ken concentrated as much as he could to return it back to Ander, but the demon was strong and was more than reluctant to return. Every passing second were hours as it grew stronger and struggling to break free.

Ken felt like passing out already as he going over his limit to hold. He heard Omi casting a spell of 'Schwächen', but it was having little affect as it recovered faster than the Zauberei worked on it.

The brunette heard a hiss past his ear caught sight of a wire he was too familiar with. It wrapped around the creature's neck several times and for some reason the demon howled as the wire bit into his neck.

"Siberian!" Ran choked and threw Yoji's watch to the brunette.

Ken caught it and jumped off the lounge, pulling the creature along. It seemed that the more the wire tightened, the weaker it got. When he finally landed on the ground, the demon had little strength to hold back and was sent back to where it belonged.

* * *

(1)Well, you know your shadows gets stepped on, but it doesn't hurt.. Ken does feel a little bit of pain though. 

Chapter two! Sorry for taking such a long time. I went Bangkok for four days. It was hot there. -.- Sorry for any errors people...

German word meanings (may not be accurate though):

Versteckt: Hidden  
Rückkehr: Return  
Hören Sie zu. Töten Sie: Listen. Kill.  
Schild: Shield  
Schwächen: Weaken

Rubymoon, kitsune: Thanks for reading!

Kasra: 'chews on blanket with puppy dog eyes' Those words are so encouraging! I'm doing this on!


	3. Chapter 5 to 7

Title: Metrepole  
Rating: PG-13. (I'm too lazy to use the new ratings) Rating MAY change depending on the topics  
Disclaimer: I don't own Weiß, but if you find any characters which doesn't belong in the anime, I suppose they're mine...So please, don't complain, don't sue, don't create a racket...  
Pairings: Unknown yet. When decided, I will put up.  
Summary: (This is centred on Ran, okay?) Ran lost his mermory and is trying hard to find it while seeking revenge against Takatori. His secret terms with Schwarz is left unknown to his new assassin members. As he struggle to stay sane for some reason, he encounters situations he had never dared imagine.  
Warning: Shounen-ai to the further chapters (that's a guarantee), maybe some OCC-ness somewhere  
Note to readers: Read and review PLEASE... (puppy dog eyes) I know I would have errors here and there, so please ignore them! Most of the words are translated into German, just to tell you, so please don't come up and tell me they're German, because they are! Okay, please go on to the story. The more reviews I get, the faster I do to be exact. Thanks for coming anyway!

* * *

**_Yoji_-**_the shattered_

"So this is the so-called Riot building eh?" Asuka whispered to her partner behind who was also her lover. Yoji nodded an affirmative and watched as people entered the tall building while some left with a satisfied smile. "Well, we've got to stop them!"

"Hai, hai. But before you start making any move, you should really watch your back first!" Yoji laughed, sliding his finger down her back; her most sensitive part. Asuka made a tiny gasp and pinch the blonde.

"Yoji! Stop playing!" The blue haired investigator growled.

The blonde shrugged and they both proceeded to the back of the building, entering from the back door as the guard was distracted. Security was weak and they made through like it was nothing. They reached the main control room where they found their key to bringing down Riot.

Yoji quickly attached the cables to a diskette and started tying on the computer to make it transfer some files over. As he watched the downloading bar start to function, he waited. He glanced over his shoulders to find Asuka peering over an interesting object.

He smiled as she began laughing as the more she stared, the more it seemed funnier to her. Abruptly, she turned away from the statue with an odd wry face.

"Is it done yet?" She asked.

"It's thirty percent done. We should have no problem if we just stay down", the blonde replied.

"Well, I'd never expect it to be this easy", Asuka giggled and leaned against the pillar which was holding the statue. Unexpectedly, the pillar wasn't attached to the ground and was knocked down under her weight.

An immediate ear-deafening ring ran throughout the whole building. Yoji cursed as he turned towards the screen. Only forty was done.

Asuka rushed and locked the door, ear pressed against it.

"Yoji! They're coming!" She said.

"It's not done yet!" Yoji yelled back.

"Yoji!" Asuka screamed.

The blonde turned his head over when the door blasted apart, throwing Asuka back. He caught her safely and faced a few guards with guns.

"Frieren!" Yoji shouted and the guards remain where they are. Hooking up an arm under Asuka, he shouted again. "Verlassen!"

A white light crept up like shadows and engulfed them both, wrapping as it twisted around, swallowing them away.

They reappeared back at the back door of the building and they darted towards the cover of the other shorter and more wrecked buildings. They fled into one of them and remained there.

It was pretty old, but good enough for cover. They found a basement and went in there as they heard Riot's people rushing to find the two intruders. A thunder of footsteps could be heard even from below and the two investigators waited as the storm passed.

"Are they gone?" Asuka whispered as she rubbed her butt.

"Think so", came the reply.

Peeking through an old, dusty window, Yoji scanned the ground from below and saw no one, or rather, no feet.

"Let's get back to the city. We're safer there."

Asuka nodded and held onto Yoji's hand as they cautiously exited the old building.

They kept running for some time before they were about a kilometer from Yoji's jeep. From above one of the buildings, the two heard a gunshot before Yoji stumbled to the ground wounded.

The blonde grunted at the pain before raising his hand at the attacker.

"Schlafend", he hissed.

Asuka immediately guided him away to a side. The sound of the gun had obviously called in the rest.

"Asuka, leave without me", Yoji muttered as he was lowered to the ground.

"I won't! How can you think of such thing at the moment?" Asuka practically screamed at him.

Yoji grabbed her arm and stared into her eyes.

"GO."

Asuka frowned and stood up straight.

"I got it. Be careful, Yoji", she said softly and leaned over, giving him a kiss on his cheek.

Yoji watched as she ran away from him and relief turned to horror as she was heading towards the direction of Riot's people.

"ASUKA!" He shouted.

She never turned, only kept running.

When she came into full view he felt his heart stop. Her body split into pieces, head detached from her neck, arms and legs separated and body sliced into two.

**What I have shown you is reality. What you remember, that is illusion.**

**Chapter 5: Unknown Enemy**

Yoji was first shocked when he heard what happened to the redhead when Omi called. Through the phone Omi claimed that the spell he cast for it to heal had little effect on the wound and that Aya was in a very crucial state. They were ten minutes away from the shop, and Omi asked the other blonde to get ready the first-aid.

When they reached it felt like hours before they could tend properly to the open wound. Basically Yoji managed to get everything set up in time as Ken brought in Ran with Omi racing against time to fix the wound. At first Ran was reluctant to let any of them even touch him, but lacked strength to even keep himself awake.

The brunette carefully placed redhead across the dinning table in the kitchen as Omi squeezed a cloth dry soaked with warm water. Yoji removed a cloth which was used to stop the blood flow with extra caution as the redhead hissed at the stinging feeling as the fabric was separated from his bare flesh.

The blonde winced at the sight of the cut that ran a third across his middle at the back and at the front.

It looked awfully familiar as well.

"Ken, what the hell happened?" Yoji growled.

The brunette twitched uncomfortably but told the older assassin everything.

"It came out of nowhere. As Aya went up to Takatori, he suddenly got cut at the side as if someone swung his katana across his side-", Ken paused. "-but there wasn't anyone there, plus neither party of Schwarz cast any spell."

"I'm sure you noticed, Omi, this was done by no ordinary spell", Yoji said softly.

Omi nodded in agreement as he wrapped a stretch of bandage around Ran with the help of Yoji holding the redhead upright.

"Well, all he needs now is some rest." Ken finished.

"I'll bring him up to his room", Yoji said quickly. Ken was caught by a slight surprise but nodded.

As carefully as h e could he scooped up Ran with his right hand under the redhead's knees and left arm supporting the upper half of his body.

"Man, this guy doesn't eat", Yoji said out loud. The other threw him a questioning look and the blonde shrugged. He proceeded to exiting the kitchen and heading up the stairs.

"Well, let's clean up this place then?" Omi asked, packing back the first-aid box. Ken sniffed and helped clean up the table which had some blood.

"You know, it kinda freaked me out that time when I saw Aya's side got sliced. The only thing which keeps me in question is that whatever spell was cast, it should have clearly killed Aya in one shot."

"The one who did it may not have to be a very strong Zauberer or Schatten. All we know is that Takatori not only has Schwarz as his bodyguards, but someone else as well."

Ken gave a low rumble at the back of his throat.

"Go ask Yoji-kun if he wants supper. I'm heading down to the mart to get a few things. Unfortunately Aya-kun didn't buy them as said on the list."

"Nah, you can just buy some booze and that guy's happy", Ken joked.

Omi used a wet towel and slapped it onto Ken's butt.

"You know I can't buy that!(1)" Omi yelled as he Ken fled to the safety of the second floor.

The blonde sighed and hung the towel on the metal bar against the wall. He dug out from the refrigerator Ken's cornflakes and once again for the endless number of times dashed all the way up to his room, right past Ken who was about to enter his own.

"Omi! Is that my stuff you're holding?" Ken yelled angrily as he caught sight of the white packaging.

"It's not!" Omi lied and closed his door.

Ken twitched but went into his room.

Silently, Omi slid open the balcony door and was greeted happily but Olivia and Pecker.

"Here you go", Omi whispered as he jiggled the packaging which poured out several cornflake bits. The two pigeons started pecking and breaking them and finally swallowing it whole. He left the pigeons eating as he went over to the corner to meet the newborn chicks.

"And how are you two? Let's see, I can finally tell the difference."

Two fluffy chicks only the size of his palm nestled in the warmth of the nest. He sat cross legged beside them and rested his chin on his hand, in which was pressed against the side of his knee.

"This is interesting", Omi laughed and he picked up the smaller of the two. "You're so white! Might as well call you Shiroi. You're other sibling can be… Midori? I think you're a male."

The older of the two chicks ignored him and was dozing off as the one in Omi's palm ruffled its tiny feathers to produce more heat from the blonde's hands.

Omi giggled at the ticklishness of its short feathers and placed it beside its sibling.

He left the balcony open without closing it and sat on his bed. He picked up his personal laptop and switched it on. The desktop came on at the same time and required the password. With swift fingers he easily typed the password and accessed into another desktop.

Sure, this was the laptop he had always used for school, but typing a different password goes to another desktop. Now he was at the one which was totally secret.

In a particular section, he began to search to identify what had attacked Aya before.

Typing in descriptive words, he got several answers. He narrowed them down to one which gave him a shock of his life.

_Streich und stirbt._

Yoji finally managed to put Ran down on his bed without getting another elbow at his chest. Jeez, the redhead simply refused help no matter what. He had a thought of dumping him on the bed and leaving him alone, but he seemed so… vulnerable to the extend it was as if he would just die from the lack of something if Yoji were ever to leave the room.

Shuddering at the thought, he propped down at the edge of the bed beside Ran. The redhead was half asleep, aware that the fact that someone else was still in the room.

Yoji looked around in the room which he presumed no one else has ever entered before. A large wooden cupboard was settled at the corner of the room and there was a fabric sofa against the wall a few feet away from the cupboard. It was placed rather close to the balcony and it bathed in the moonlight which entered the room. The thin, pale blue color of the curtains made the room looked kind of creepy and it gave the blonde a slight chill. Apart from these things, the last two were Ran's bed and finally a small bedside cupboard opposite him.

Quietly, he walked over to the other side and looked down at a photo frame which could store two photos. Decorated by the sides were flowers and at the upper right hand corner a big butterfly was on.

Exactly two photos were inside.

One was Ran himself together with a girl with blue hair. She looked young, maybe about 16. She wore a blue kimono with sakura petals. The other picture was him with four other people. Ran was standing in the middle with his usual look while this other blonde person who was slightly taller than him hand a hand on his shoulder and grinning in the photo. The one below the short, yellow haired person was a kid who seemed to be younger than Omi with very light brown hair. Another two at Ran's right had dark brown hair and the other had a fairly dark blue hair.

Who could they be? Yoji wondered.

The ice princess never related himself with them before, but previously had this many people to be with. Further more a GIRL with him. His girlfriend or what?

He looked closer at the picture and noticed a similarity between the two in the photo.

Oh--sister and brother…

Yoji jumped when Ran shifted on the bed and saw the blonde looked down at him.

"Get out", he muttered.

"When you can do so, tell me."

Ran gave a growl. He intended to, but his throat was too dry to cooperate with him. He felt like shit; unable to move a single bit due to the drowsy painkillers given by his teammates.

"So, who're they?" Yoji asked, pointing to the photo Ran taken with the four other people.

"None of your business", he grumbled.

"I don't buy that answer."

Ran snorted and managed to get his leg moving and kicked Yoji at his butt. Yoji yelped and jumped off the bed and rubbed his hind, giving a glare at the redhead who was still returning with a glare of his own.

"Sour puss."

"Hard ass."

"Ice Princess."

"Why you…"

Yoji gave him a victory grin and Ran sniffed.

"So, just who may they be?"

"I told you it's none of your business."

"Fine, I'll get it out of you sooner or later. Want water? Well, anyway I'll get it for you."

Ran growled as the blonde left his room, followed by a sigh and staring up at his ceiling.

/Ran? Oi, you okay? How's your wound/ Schuldich said quickly.

/I'm fine. Wrapped up./

/Phew, I thought you were going to die/

/Worried/

/Me? Worried? No way…OF COURSE I am you idiot! You nearly died out there/

Ran winced at the loud voice in his head.

/I thought you knew./

/THAT'S the problem. What Crawford saw wasn't according at all./

/What do you mean/

"You weren't supposed to be hurt that way." Ran turned his head over to see the telepath standing at the window. "What Crawford foretold was you running up to us. The injury I meant was Crawford defending Takatori and throwing you to the ground. It has never occurred to him that someone would cast _Streich und stirbt_."

"Streich und stirbt?" Ran questioned.

"Slash and die. Schatten Zauberei to be exact."

"But I thought it was banned?"

"You can _think_, but who is there to confirm?"

Ran sat up and leaned against the wall as Schuldich walked over and sat down at the bed.

"What I think is Takatori not only has us as his bodyguards. We have to be very careful", Schuldich paused. "Extra careful, to be precise."

"What are you doing here anyway?" Ran asked, changing the subject.

"I was just checking on my kätzchen. Can't I do that?' Schuldich grinned.

Ran dismissed it with a snort and lay down against his bed.

"About who attacked you now, Crawford said it was totally unexpected and that he wanted to apologise to you."

"It wasn't his fault."

"Hey, he cares for you as much as he cares for me."

Ran raised a brow. "He cares for a person with the likes of you?"

"You're wounded and you still have that tongue of yours to insult?"

"Bite me."

"I would if I had the time to. Anyway, Bradley just wanted to apologise and hope you can take care of yourself since we can't always be there for you. I mean we can but, not always."

"I appreciate it Schuldich."

"Ja, I'll take my leave. Crawford wants me at the building. Take care of yourself."

Schuldich leaned over and placed a kiss on Ran's forehead, which caused the redhead to blush.

"Bye bye", Schuldich grinned and went out the window.

Yoji had himself humming as he left Ran's room. So finally the cold hearted person was talking. Maybe he could be able to speak to but there was just something holding him back. Well, whatever it was, the blonde was oddly confident in getting Aya to trust him. He nearly reached the top of the staircase when he saw Omi's door swing open and the blonde coming out in a hurry, colliding into the older blonde.

"Whaoh, what's the hurry?"

"It's Aya-kun! The Zauberei cast on him, it was Streich und stirbt!" Omi yelled.

"That's impossible", Yoji snorted and paused. "Are you serious?"

"Would I lie about such things?" Omi said angrily. "The only ones able to use that is a Schatten, not to mention an evil one considering he was able to use _it_."

Yoji wondered about something, then nodded. "Right. Try finding info on the one who used it. Schwarz right?"

Omi shook his head which received a disappointed look from Yoji.

"The only Schatten in Schwarz is one called Schuldich, but that time he had not cast any spell, so it can't be him."

"Well, that's an extra thing to solve."

"I'm going to have to deal with the report…"

"Are you going to include that?"

"Not yet. Until we can get to the bottom of it, I'd suggest we don't."

"You're the leader(2). You choose."

Omi nodded and went down the stairs to the mission room while Yoji made a turn for the kitchen instead.

Streich und stirbt. That was probably the spell which killed Asuka. He was sure of it. Whoever had used it has to be the same person. Yoji would find him and swear to make his life a living Hell.

**Chapter 6: Blaue Löcher**

"Miami looks like shit, don't you think?" His dark-haired partner commented.

"For someone like you, I'm sure here is better than Ander", Mist chuckled. "Metrepole has changed in far too many ways in just a few months."

"Obviously", Koujenrou, or in short Kou, snorted.

The demon sat horizontally on the one seat sofa, hanging his legs off the armchair. He folded his arms behind him and watched the other pick a magazine from the glass table settled in the middle of the living room.

Mist had short black hair with two long ear-tails which reached down to his waist. He wasn't on any mission now, so he wore a plain tee instead of his mission clothing. Kou was no different, only walking around the house in a pair of long pants and sleeveless top.

"Oh great, Kazuma just had to buy a porn magazine again", Mist muttered, flinging away his long hair to the back.

"What? Again?" Kou sneered, showing his hand to make Mist past it to him.

"No you don't you pervert", theShapeshifter growled. Instead of giving him the magazine, he made use of it by hitting Kou's palm.

"Ow! Man, understand me a little! You don't find those things at Ander!" Kou hissed as he pampered his painful hand.

"That's why Ander is perfect for you."

Kou gave a 'humph' and went back to resting his eyes. Mist was far too busy packing up the place. He had only left the house for three days to get to Puerto Rico to meet Persia, and now he was back again with a place turned upside down by his two other teammates, Kawazoe Kazuma and Ishimaru Kenta. Both were twenty, but Mist and Kou wasn't exactly sure of theirs. Maybe around there.

Kazuma has green colour hair, odd but true while Kenta had maroon hair colour. Both were two peas in a pod in personality and they both got along even better than brothers. Both were Schattens, Mist was aShapeshifter and Kou was neither. He was from Ander. The fact that he is from there made him feared by numerous Kritiker agents, including Kenta and Kazuma. The only one unafraid of him at first sight was Mist, since they both grew up together.

The only Dämon living here was Kou and Persia was more than proud to have Kou's trust to be on his side. The reason he was here instead of remaining at Ander was between Mist and himself. Even though his two other teammates earned his trust he preferred not to tell them their past.

The reason why Kou and Mist joined Kritiker was because they were in debt to Persia, the person who had saved them. Kenta's mother was a Krtiker agent from the start, so he decided to follow her footsteps to do good.

It was the opposite for Kazuma though. His parents were from Estet. He didn't want to join there even thought he was forced; forced to the extend that they wanted to kill him for defying them. He ran away and was introduced to Kritiker by a woman who was from there. She took care of him the same way she took care of her son, Kenta. It was not surprise the two were like brothers now.

Kenta's mother and also Kazuma's guardian, she was still working for Kritiker.

The first thing Mist did was frowned when he heard the front door click open. He placed his hands on his waist and waited as his two other teammates came in.

"And you know, she was like so furious", Kenta laughed. Kenta saw the person in the room glaring at them.

"And speak of the devil, guess who's furious too?" Kenta stammered in a shaky voice. Mist knew it was a fake and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"You two have a lot of explaining to do while we were gone", Mist said angrily.

"What are you talking about-" Kazuma saw the rolled up porn magazine of his in the bin. "-oh that. One of the girls came over and brought that over! She must've forgot to bring it back!"

Mist's eyes glinted with anger. "Girl?"

Kenta wrapped his hand over the older guy's mouth. "Ignore him Mist! He doesn't know what he's saying!" Kenta laughed.

"Oh REALLY?" Mist growled. Kou got up and draped an arm over the sofa, looking at the two at the door.

"No wonder I smell sex", Kou grinned.

"KOU!" Kenta and Kazuma screamed as Mist started giving off a super freaky aura.

The demon burst out in laughing and got up from his seat. He walked over to Mist and placed his arm across Mist's neck.

"Kidding. They're stating the truth. A lady did come over from the scent of her perfume, but I don't smell anything _more_."

"Well, it had better be that way."

The other two assassins heaved a long sigh of relief.

"Jesus, Kou. Don't ever joke with such things!" Kazuma sighed as he took off his shoes and entered the house.

"Did Tiefer(3) come when we were gone?" Kou asked.

"No. She knew you would be at Persia's so she extended the mission to tomorrow. She should be coming anytime today", Kenta replied as he dug out a can of beer from the fridge and tossing it to Kou.

Kou caught it easily and flicked it open. From there the gas in the beer started spurting out and Kou licked them up.

"Right… Kou, stop doing that", Mist said as he nudged his partner at the side which caused the demon to choke on the drink. Mist ended up apologizing and patting him on his back. Kenta and Kazuma laughed as they downed their beers. They continued laughing when they saw how red Kou's face was from choking on the beer.

"Anyway, what did Persia say, Mist?" Kenta asked.

"Well, he just came to inform me that Takatori Reiji was finding a Diamant and that we should be more careful since now Takatori plans to join forces with Estet", Mist paused. "And that Crashers is down."

That caused the two in the kitchen to start coughing.

"Are you serious! I can't believe they're taken down! How're they?"

"Two of them died, one's in hospital, another's recuperating at home and the last one just got transferred to another team a year ago."

"Who got transferred?"

Mist stayed silent.

"Curiosity killed the cat, Kenta", Mist replied.

**Chapter 7: Schrient**

Takatori looked down from the highest floor of Groß at the city he believe he would conquer soon. It has been years of search for the perfect person to be his Diamant. Among all these times, many people were willing. It wasn't because they were willing he didn't' want to choose them. It felt… wrong. What he wanted or desired was totally different from the usual people he have met.

His thoughts were disturbed as there was a knock on his door.

"Excuse me Mr. Takatori", Crawford said politely. "I heard that you've sent for me?"

"Yes, I did. I want to introduce to you some people." Takatori raised his hands and snapped his fingers.

Four shadows swept passed the precog very swiftly, but Crawford remained at where he was. He turned over when he heard the door open and someone entering.

"I'd like you to meet Masafumi, my son. You may or may not have heard of him, together with his bodyguards, Schrient."

The shadows were black even under bright light, but the blackness faded away and dissolved to the ground into dust. Instead of four black figures, out came four women. They kept their gaze locked onto Crawford.

"I have decided that Masafumi and I would be working together to our goal. What do you think, Crawford?"

"I think it's very good. In fact, if it goes along well, both perties would greatly profit from it."

"Yes, yes. That was what I would like to hear from you. You see, Masafumi offered me that his bodyguards serve also as mine and that I shall support him financially."

Crawford nodded and watched as Masafumi approached his father and stand beside him.

"Let me introduce: this is Hell, Schön, Neu and Tot. They're my personal bodyguards. Let's hope everyone can cooperate?" He tossed a look to one of the girls, the one standing to Crawford's upper left corner. He believed that was probably the leader, and from the names stated it could be Hell.

Hell nodded.

"I hope to work well with you too, Mr. Masafumi, along with your… bodyguards." Crawford gave a slight bow.

"Crawford, why don't you take Schrient and show them around Groß?"

"I will. I'll take my leave now." Crawford walked to the door and opened it. "Ladies."

Hell proceeded outside and her group followed behind closely. Crawford gave his last bow and closed the door behind him.

He led the four down the hallway where there were three lifts. He pressed for one and entered the lift when it came together with them.

"I suppose you're the head of Schwarz?" Hell asked.

"It seems you know us", Crawford said.

Hell snorted and as Crawford expected, her hand lashed out all of a sudden towards his face. He easily dodged it by shifting backwards.

"And your talent seems true enough."

"Your speed is to be watched out for as well, Ms. Hell."

"You flatter me, Mr. Crawford", Hell said as she withdrew her arm to her side. "Where shall we be heading off first?"

"I will first show you the restricted zones of Groß first. Mr. Takatori doesn't wish to have unwanted visitors there."

The lift gave a loud ring and the door opened. The place was dimly lit and you could not see more than three meters away.

"The other floors do have restricted areas, but this floor is special. The furthest you can get to in this floor is out of the lift. It is protected by a highly tight defense and is monitored 24 hours. Even now as I speak, there are at least ten people watching us.

"The only one able to enter is Mr. Takatori, as this floor's tiles are made of metal sensors. For every step is a specific one. It scans your weight, height, foot size etc, and if none matches Mr. Taktori's it would immediately fire for ten consecutive minutes. That time the lift would be blocked and you have no way to escape."

Tot held onto Neu's arm.

"Does that mean if Tot step in front, we die?" She asked in her squeaky voice.

"Yes, unfortunately you would. Anyone who 'accidentally' steps into the room has five by five steps max to walk. Further than that, the defenses are activated immediately."

"Scary, isn't it Neu?" She said unhappily as she tugged the arm of the older woman. Neu gave no response, just staring ahead into the pitch black darkness.

"Now, shall I show you others?"

Crawford presses the lift and waited for any of the three to open. The one in the middle didn't open but the one of the left did. Inside Schuldich was there, leaning against the lift and smirking at those outside.

"Hello ladies", he greeted.

Hell sniffed and looked at Crawford.

The precog pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose.

"This is Mastermind, or Schuldich if you wish to address him that way. He is part of Schwarz."

"Guten Abend as well", he said as he shifted away from where he was standing to hold the lift door open. "Coming in?"

Schrient went in and waited as Crawford pushed a button which was from the upper stories.

"So, what are four beauties like you doing in Groß?" Schuldich asked, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"We are now part of Takatori's bodyguards together with you."

"With us? Now, how fun could that be?"

/Crawford? What in the world is Takatori planning/ Schuldich asked telepathically, dividing his thoughts in speaking and communicating through his thoughts.

/I myself have no idea. Takatori claimed that Masafumi lent Schrient to play as bodyguards, but I know that's not all./

/Masafumi? His son/

/Yes./

"If you're thinking of anything, Schuldich, I' suggest you forget it", Crawford said, acting normally.

"Yeah, yeah", Schuldich smirked as he tossed a wink at Schön who gave him a glare.

/Have you found out about who attacked Ran/

/Not yet. It isn't Schrient though, as I can predict their moves. The one who attacked Ran was someone I could not see in the future./

/Meaning a dangerous buddy of Takatori./

/Affirmative./

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OMG I'M SOOOOOOOOOOOO SORRY! I've been having problems finishing lately! Lucky it's only been a few weeks. Okay, I present you chapter 3! Yay! So the story unfolds by bits. It's like that, but thank you for having patience in waiting for my updates. :) As you can see I planned out on Asuka and Yoji the first time they entered the Riot building. Give me a comment/review on that thanks.

For the (FYI):  
(1)Omi's underage. Can't buy booze now, can he?  
(2)Omi was the ex-leader in case you don't know. That was before Ran joined Weiss.  
(3) Tiefer. Like Manx and Birman she's in charge of giving missions to Blaue Löcher.

Translations:  
Frieren-Freeze  
Verlassen-Leave  
Schlafend-Sleep  
Streich und stirbt-Slash and Die. Here's a little info in case you missed out. It's only usable when each time it is used, a life is taken away which excludes the victim. Technically meaning two people would die after the usage of it. Ah, but Ran didn't die! Why? It's for me to know and for you to find out!

Disclaimer: Mist and Kou. Yes if you've heard of them, don't kill me. I've got permission from Mistskeeper. She's now a good buddy of mine. You can go complain to her, but she won't hold it against me. :P Try all you might but it won't work. If you're nice though, you can go read Time to Burn done by her. Mist and Kou are inside. If you're interested, this is how I got Kou and Mist to be in my fic (I was fighting with Kou to be exact. He refused to let me take Mist):

TO KOU: Alright you big buffoon! I won't steal Mist if you agree to be in my fic! Force your Keeper to let me use you! Bwah ha ha!

Kou: Who the hell are you calling buffoon? You couldn't steal Mist if he was givin to you! So why should I be in your story!

Mist: Because I want you to be.

Kou: -mumble-Fine, I'll be in the story. But for your information she is NOT my keeper! Why would I listen to her? She's a no good -censor, censor, censor, censor-

Mist: Come on Kou, let's go I'm hungry.

END. Yeah, that's how I managed to use them. :3 This is the genuine thing! I found it real funny. I kept calling Mist Mist-chan and Kou was absolutely furious at me he wanted to kill me. Ha ha... Unfortunately Mist-chan saved my life and dragged him out the door to the park. :) He's so nice. I keep calling Kou buffoon too. That's two reasons for him to kill me, but usually people said you needed three. Besides, I'm a chicken(as in the animal. My friends call me that). Chickens have many lives so why not live a little:3

Reviewers:  
RubyMoon: Argh... I'm having a hard time now... Everyone keeps taking the computer away from me. T.T  
Kasra: Thanks about the Human Chess. :) Actually, those words about the memory, I have no idea why I put it in. -sweatdrop- Omi didn't lose his memory... I'll be getting into Ken's past next...  
Einsam: I see. I had problems just getting into ebfore. Thanks for reviewing!Oh yes, not ALL the episodes may be featured, that I must apologise. Some won't really add much to this story (because if I don, it's for nuts and taking up space). I'll try spacing out the story for you okay? Thanks again!


	4. Chapter 8 to 9

Title: Metrepole  
Rating: PG-13. (I'm too lazy to use the new ratings) Decided to remain.  
Disclaimer: I don't own Weiß, but if you find any characters which doesn't belong in the anime, I suppose they're mine...So please, don't complain, don't sue, don't create a racket...  
Pairings: Yoji X Ran, Schuldich X Ken( for a little someone), Mist + Kou (I don't really know if they're _that _together), a few more undecided yet...  
Summary: Ran lost his mermory and is trying hard to find it while seeking revenge against Takatori. His secret terms with Schwarz is left unknown to his new assassin members. As he struggle to stay sane for some reason, he encounters situations he had never dared imagine.  
Warning: Shounen-ai to the further chapters (that's a guarantee), maybe some OCC-ness somewhere  
Note to readers: Read and review PLEASE... (puppy dog eyes) I know I would have errors here and there, so please ignore them! Most of the words are translated into German, just to tell you, so please don't come up and tell me they're German, because they are! Okay, please go on to the story. The more reviews I get, the faster I do to be exact. Thanks for coming anyway!

_**

* * *

Ken**- the betrayed_

Everyone was excited. It wasn't the first time the team went out to a football game, but it had always been just before you enter the field. Everyone was talking to each other to calm themselves. Their coach gave occasional announcements, out of which most of them were 'ten minutes to the game' followed by 'nine minutes to the game'. Gee, he could be the battery-free clock.

Ken clasped his hands together in anxiety. Kase came into the locker room and started passing around bottles of water. Kase was considered the second best player of the team after Ken, but an unfortunate accident caused a major injury to his ankle until he had to use crutches. It has been weeks after it, but the doctors made it specific he could not play soccer for at least a month.

"Hey Ken, here", Kase said as he dropped a bottle into the brunette's hand. Ken thanked his best friend and gulped down half the bottle before releasing a long sigh.

"It's a pity you can't play, Kase."

"Nah. It would be better if I got better and be able to play again than to play now and get myself into bigger trouble causing me to be unable to play forever, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"I'll be sitting with the coach and watching you guys play. Heck, I'll even join the cheerleading squad!" Kase joked, making Ken laugh along.

"It's two minutes left! Everyone get ready!" The coach shouted louder this time. Everyone started to feel their hearts jumping wildly and Ken had the same feeling as well.

He got up from his place and Kase did the same.

"Good luck, Ken!" Kase gave a thumbs up.

Ken grinned and did the same before running off to get ready for the game.

For what was only ten minutes past in the game, but to Ken it seemed like hours instead. Being the goalkeeper wasn't easy. One mistake and the opponent could score easy. It takes a more precise aiming of catching the ball and throwing it to the best points in the fields.

Ken immediately got into position when he saw the opponent dribbling the ball around with his feet and racing towards the brunette.

It was a sudden feeling of nausea when Ken saw three images of the opponent instead of one. He shook his head and flinched when a strong wind brushed past the left cheek of his face. Coming back to his senses, he turned to find the soccer ball rolling around in the net behind him.

The crowd went wild when the goal was made, but what Ken could hear was nothing. His friends were calling out to him, but he couldn't hear their voices. He couldn't hear anything else, except for his heartbeat which was racing in his chest.

One of his members came up and gave him a pat on his shoulder, assuring him that it would be okay. Ken could only nod.

Second, third and finally the fourth goal. It had been the worst score the team had. The opponents made four consecutive goals and Ken wasn't able to do a thing. He kept seeing multiple visions, not to mention he kept going for the wrong places to catch the ball. The coach finally got the picture that Ken wasn't stable for the game and sent him in, switching with another player.

Ken hissed as he propped himself down onto the bench. This has never happened before. What the hell was wrong with him?

Kase placed a hand on Ken's shoulder and shook him a little.

"Hey, what's wrong with you? You feeling okay?"

Ken managed to shake his head.

"Something's wrong. I can't concentrate…"

From afar Ken heard someone running towards him and waving the bottle he had drank from before.

"Coach! This is bad!" The guy shouted. The coach gave a look of question before the man started whispering some words. The coach's face from question turned to fury and he shot Ken a glare.

"Ken Hidaka! I never knew, and to think you were my best player!" He roared.

Ken was about to protest on whatever the coach was about to say, but failed as the coach's loud voice drowned his.

"After all these years, I finally know the secret of your ability! You were actually taking drugs!"

"What? I did no such thing!"

"That's right! I know Ken! He'd never take drugs even if it cost his life!" Kase defended.

"Well, whatever the reason, I found a drug in this drink!"

"I didn't do anything to it!"

"You're out! Ken Hidaka!"

The brunette felt like crying, but he didn't want to either. The news spread faster than ever about him taking drugs.

It isn't true! He kept repeating in his mind.

He growled and punched the wall. He was so humiliated. Whoever did it to him… It must've been the opponent. He can be sure of it. All he has to do now is find the culprit to clarify himself. Everything would be fine then, wouldn't it?

Yes, he had to do it. He was about to step out of the locker room when Kase appeared.

"Kase?"

"Ken, follow me. I need to show you something."

That was odd. Kase rarely spoke in such serious tone. If that was the case, Ken had to follow. Maybe Kase had caught the culprit? Then he was saved!

His heart beating with excitement as he followed Kase some distance away from the football field to an old wreck of a small warehouse.

"Kase, what's up with you? "

"Ken, there's something I need to tell you."

"Urm… Sure. You can tell me anything."

"I was the one who placed the drug in your drink."

Ken felt his heart sink.

"What? You're kidding… I know you're just trying to joke, Kase, but it isn't funny, you know?" Ken forced a laugh and reached out to pat Kase when the other turned to slap his hand away.

"I'm serious, Hidaka", Kase growled.

Hidaka. That was one name Kase never called him before. He was definitely serious.

"No, it can't be…Why?'

"Because, it's always Ken this and Ken that. Everyone is crazy about you! What about his friend? His _best_ friend? Left aside! All the members look up to you. Do they ever do that to me?"

"Look, I could talk to them you know?"

"Forget it Hidaka! It's too late! I won't forgive you and I don't plan to do that either!" Kase snapped his fingers and a group of men dressed in black clothing appeared. They went straight up to the brunette and caught him by his arms and dragged him into the old warehouse.

With the lack of experience in fighting, Ken was little fight to the bigger and much stronger men. They threw him into the warehouse roughly, not caring when Ken hit his head against the wall. It nearly threw him unconscious as he barely stayed awake.

He felt his shirt soaking up some cold liquid. The smell was awful yet familiar. His eyes immediately shot open when he realized it was kerosene. The men poured it all over him from head to toe. He coughed as some went into his mouth and the liquid blinded him.

"Sayonara, Hidaka Ken."

He heard a flick before his body went into flames starting from his legs. As much as he didn't want to, he saw Kase leaving with his group of men.

Ken shouted in pain as the heat started burning in his flesh. He was going to die. It was the end of him. Hidaka Ken was history.

"Löschen aus"

**Time can determine fate, yet, fate isn't determined.**

**Chapter 8: The Beginning of the Hunt**

"Ne, is Aya-san sick? Can we see him?"

All the girls started asked these two questions. Some even specially bought the flowers from their shop and asked the other three to pass Ran those flowers.

"He's fine, just a minor fever. He should be able to come to work in a few days' time", Yoji lied. It wasn't worth telling them that Ran had injured himself. Further more they were bound to get several questions which could not be answered.

The girls gave whines about the guys not letting them personally meet Ran.

"Okay, I'm going to pass Aya-kun his 'new flowers'", Omi said as he collected the numerous bouquets. Ken offered to help but Omi refused it since it was peak time for the shop and many people (mostly schoolgirls who enjoy taking up space in the shop) would be visiting the shop.

Careful as he could be, he collected the flowers and headed to the back of the shop. He knew the flowers sent by the schoolgirls won't exactly cheer him up a lot, but it was worth a try. That guy seemed to like flowers for some reason.

He went up the stairs and gently knocked onto the door calling out Ran's name at the same time. Receiving no answer, he wondered if the redhead was asleep or didn't bother to answer.

Slowly, he pushed open the door and entered into the dark room (the curtains were down). He searched around and to his horror Ran wasn't in the room.

Dumping the flowers on the bed he ran back down downstairs, searched before dashing to the shop. Panting hard, he shouted.

"Guys! The cat's gone!"

Yoji and Ken shot a shocked look at the blonde. Omi returned with a worried look on his face.

"Okay girls. We've got a really sneaky cat who enjoys going around the neighborhood by himself, so we have to find him. Care to come back tomorrow instead?" Yoji asked in his slightly seductive tone.

Some squealed while other girls gave a few more whining before following what the playboy had said and left the shop. Ken quickly put the shop to the 'out for lunch' sign and all three of them went to the back, not even bothering to take off their aprons.

"What do you mean he's gone? Are you sure he wasn't in the kitchen?"

"I can't find him anywhere. I tried looking everywhere."

"Let's go to his room. Maybe we can use Zauberei to find him", Yoji said and went upstairs with the other two assassins following behind.

Indeed, their so-called leader was missing without a trace. Yoji decided to use theSuche technique which required him to touch one of Ran's belongings so he could track the redhead down. Omi has offered to do it instead but the older assassin declined and said he was more experienced and could probably search a wider range that the smaller blonde could.

One hand rested on the pillow Ran had been sleeping on and Yoji began to chant. It took him quite some time to get used to the spell since he hadn't been practicing on his skills for some time, mostly killing the targets with a handy wire.

After several minutes of searching, what the blonde found weird was, he couldn't get a single trace on the redhead. He scanned quite some distance from the shop and the redhead couldn't have gone far with that open wound of his. To add along, it was unusual as a normal human shouldn't be able to deflect a spell, furthermore one which is done in secret like what Yoji was doing right now.

He continued as hard as he could, concentrating all on finding for the redhead. After five more agonizing minutes, the blonde stopped the spell, body drenched in sweat. Ken tried to attempt it with his own spell but Yoji stopped him.

"It's not going to work no matter how hard we try. It's either Aya who's able to repel the spell or someone has produced a barrier to prevent me from finding him, and my better bet is on the second one."

"But who does Aya know can?"

"I don't know, but we'd better start looking for him in case it's someone we don't want to know."

Ran pretty much tried acting normal, walking on the crowded streets and preventing the pain from stopping him from getting to the other side of town. He wasn't sure if he should go see his sister in this state. The hospital was some distance away and he usually drove but the wound had a little impact to his driving abilities at the moment. Besides his Porsche had a tracking device in which the rest would definitely use to find him (he didn't knew there was a spell called Suche).

It felt rather disgusting to be able to feel your flesh separate each other. He felt almost like a pig who barely managed to escape the slaughter house.

What came next was a little more than unfortunate. Some drunkard walking in broad daylight had to go nuts and jab him directly in his wound, asking him to join him. He cringed in pain as he lay back against a wall, holding his side as the pain took its time to ease away the hurting. As much as he didn't want to, he began panting a little as the pain instead of subsiding, became worse each second. The painkillers he took before leaving had the best timing to wear off. It added negatively to the fact he had not brought any of it along with him.

He had to get to somewhere to rest. The hospital and the shop were almost the same distance away as each other so he was about in the middle. It would take at least twenty minutes to reach either side due to the crowds.

He tilted his head against the wall with his eyes closed. He wasn't sure if he could hold up that long. Or maybe he could just stand here at the wall of the alleyway and wait as of a miracle would come…

/So people like you do believe in miracles/

Ran opened an eye to see Schuldich standing at the entrance of the alley and smirking back at the other redhead.

"Bradley asked me to get you. So, do you want to stay here or do you want to go over at our place to rest?"

Ran kept silent.

"I'll choose for you then. Here", Schuldich took out a small packet of two pills and from his other pocket a small bottle containing water. Ran was about to reach for it when he toppled over.

Schuldich caught him just in time before Ran reached the ground.

"Whoa, you're that weak?" Schuldich sneered.

"Shut up", Ran muttered.

Schuldich stayed quiet for a moment before speaking. "No wonder. You haven't eaten in days. You'd probably take like one meal per month like a snake or something."

Ran growled and pushed Schuldich away as he stabilized himself on his own two feet.

"Anyway, here're a few painkillers. Strong dose though, I must say. They're sometimes used for Farf", Schuldich said as he dropped two pills into Ran's hand. The redhead sniffed at the two medicines in his hand before throwing them into his mouth and drinking it down together with the water he got from the telepath.

"The painkillers take about five minutes to take affect, so you have enough time to get back to our place before you fall asleep."

Ran was about to decline but had no choice as Schuldich dragged him though the crowds easily without bumping into anyone.

They reached Oleander Towers in a short while and Ran began feeling a bit tired and drowsy. Luckily without the perverted guard they were able to get through the entrance quickly and into the lift where Ran had to lay on Schuldich to keep himself up.

Apparently Schuldich had to carry Ran out of the lift and place him on the couch as the redhead began snoozing in calm breaths.

"How long is he going to be out?" Nagi asked as he descended from the stairs.

"Farf takes at least a day to wake up. I think for him it'll take two days."

"Are you sure we should be doing this?"

"To prevent Ran from being in danger, yes."

"What about his other teammates?"

"They'll be in some trouble, but Crawford assured me that they won't die…yet."

Nagi nodded and watched as Ran shifted a little on the couch.

"Don't you want to put him in a bed instead?"

"I knew you were a smart kid."

"I don't go to a university(1) at this age for nuts."

"Yeah, right", Schuldich snorted. "You wanna bring him in?"

Nagi shrugged in which Schuldich took as a yes. The younger brunette stepped up the redhead on the couch and teleported both him and Ran to the upper floor where he placed him on the bed in his room.

"Hey, why is he in this room?" Schuldich, standing at the doorway with his arms crossed, glaring at Nagi.

"Because Crawford trusts me more than he does to you."

"Hey, what would I do?"

"I wouldn't even bother thinking."

"Oh really?" Schuldich snickered.

"Your old antics won't work on me anymore, Schu", Nagi replied flatly.

"Ch, maybe I should pick a new person to play with."

"By all means."

"Don't try anything funny, kid, or I'll personally come at night to you-know-what."

"Like I'd try. Get out of my room", Nagi snarled.

"Alright, alright. So much for Bradley using so many rooms for certain 'things'."

"I'm pretty fine with sleeping here thank you. Besides I'm sure Ran would first faint if he ever knew he was sleeping in your bed."

"You sure you're not getting horny?"

"Shut up and get out", Nagi used his telekinetic power to shut the door, slamming it into Schuldich's face.

"You're no fun!" Nagi heard from the other side of the door. He ignored it and headed to his personal computer and switched it on. Crawford said they were going to have a long mission tonight, so he'd better get his schoolwork done before then.

"Any luck?" Yoji asked as he near to his two other teammates. They both shook their heads and the blonde raked a hand through his messy hair. "Damn. We've searched all over town and we still can't find him?"

"Urm, guys, we have a mission. Manx contacted me just now and said we had to report back at the shop at twelve, with or without the cat."

"Damn her. I thought she'd be a nice woman but she had an absolute liking for bad timings", Yoji growled.

"We don't have a choice. Manx said that he could take care of himself and that she would send a search party if he doesn't return in three days", Omi said while fiddling with the hem of his shirt.

Yoji could tell the youngest was already starting to feel uneasy and decided not to do anything first. He gave a pat on Omi's head and gave a smile.

"Don't worry. Let's get back to the shop and see what Manx has to say."

When the three assassins reached the shop, they had not found Manx, but a brown, envelope package instead. They took it down to the mission room and Omi dug out a small silver chip with multiple small buttons and a lens on it. The envelope also came with a CD-rom which says 'CATS' on it. Knowing the function of the silver chip, Omi found the correct button to press and a hologram of Manx came alive in the middle of the mission room.

Before anything was done though, a soft heat rays scanned the room quickly to ensure that the people in were confirmed identities before Manx made her talk.

"Weiss, I shall make my speech a quick one as there is little time to waste. The search for the perfect Diamant for Takatori Reiji is increasing rapidly. Before we can face him hand to hand we have to some underlings which require extermination before reaching our goal.

The consequences if Takatori getting a Diamant, I'm sure you know clearly what would happen afterwards. With that, the CD-rom that came together in the brown envelope can be opened for you to receive the first mission for what we call 'TH' meaning The Hunt."

Manx finished her speech before a robotic voice went: 'This message will be deleted', followed by a loud clicking noise and the chip shattering into tiny pieces.

**Chapter 9: Fortune teller**

"Well, basically, we have to get rid of some people who would prove a bigger threat to us as we make our way up. These mostly contain the bigger companies who do illegal agreements behind the reporter's backs", Omi explained as he decode the information shown on the computer.

Kritiker has to make sure that any information given out had to be totally protected. They even made their own codes where only certain agents were taught the method of decoding the messages. In Weiss's case, it's the youngest.

The blonde continued.

"Each time we deal with one, Takatori is bound to increase his defenses, so we have got to be extra careful in our actions. Any wrong move and it's the end for us and Kritiker."

"So, what's the first one we have to deal with?" Yoji asked as he fished out a cigarette from his pocket.

"Well, from what they say, it takes place at Riot building and--"

The rest of the words were deaf to Yoji. The minute the name of the building where he lost Asuka immediately caused him to flare in anger. The other two sensed the sudden tension in the room and watched as Yoji crushed the cigarette in his hand.

"How about I take this mission, alone?" Yoji said through clenched teeth.

Omi was reluctant, but seeing that this Riot building has something to do with Yoji, he decided to let him do it under certain conditions.

The first was either Ken or Omi were to be contacted if Yoji ever failed in anything small. The second was to never take risks no matter the case, and Yoji agreed to these two easily.

It was reported in order to find the targets they would need to snag the timings of when they visited the Riot building. Yoji knew exactly what he needed to do. It was this which he failed on before. He wasn't planning on repeating the mistake twice. It was only one in the afternoon, so he decided to take a walk outside while Ken and Omi did the lighter job of rechecking the fake identity Yoji would be posing as in the Riot building.

Yoji strolled down the nearby park and walked around the reservoir. He stared into the vast blue skies and back down at the blue water.

He sighed as the unwanted memory of Asuka came in mind. It wasn't only Asuka he remembered, though…

He jumped when he felt a tap on his back. He turned to find an old man with thick bushy eyebrows and a grey beard. He also held onto a walking stick as if a third leg. Yoji was slightly freaked at the old man who was walking around with a red cloth wrapped around his eyes.

"By any chance, young lad, a way to Westliche Straße?" He asked in a shaky voice, but it was due to the old voice box he probably has. Thinking he might as well help, he smiled back at the old man despite the other's blindness.

"Sure. I know a quick and easy way", Yoji replied and led the old man away from the park. It has been a ten minute walk and Yoji was amazed at how fast the old man could keep up with him. On several cases the old man even said it was okay for him to move faster.

They had a soft chat on the way. The blonde managed to feel comfortable even though they were total strangers. They finally reached Westliche Straße and the man wandered to an alley.

Worried, Yoji followed and found the old man standing there just facing him.

"I thank you, and in return, I give you an old man's voicing", he said. Yoji was puzzled and was about to ask when the old man lifted his walking stick, pointing at Yoji.

"Your life is complicated, my son. Be aware of what meets beyond your eyes. The sorrow of tomorrow would soon come, that I must stress. I feel sorry. Yet, it has been decided."

"What has been decided?"

"The first died for you even though you didn't love. The second you love you saw being killed isn't dead. The third you started to love dies for you. The fourth you love dies without wanting your love…"

Yoji was more than shocked. He had no idea how to respond to that. Thinking it was some kind of trick, he growled back.

"And what's the fifth going to do?" He wanted to test him. Whatever this old man was talking about, it creep him out.

Letting a sigh, the old man continued, "I wish you'd never asked. The fifth would die right before your eyes yet save many lives."

Yoji snorted and turned away from the alley.

"Open your eyes, Yoji Kudou. Fate changes every second."

Yoji heard his name and froze. He never told that geezer his name. How in the world did he know his name? He turned over and was about to shout when he realised he was only facing the blank, red brick wall of the alley. The only was the old man could leave the alleyway was to get past him.

Yoji felt his heart beat hard in his chest. Whoever that was, he had obviously did a good job of scaring him to his wits. So what if he was an assassin? Assassins still would be afraid of something, and for Yoji, it's supernaturalism. He shuddered as he left the alley. He was definitely going to keep it to himself, and hopefully what he said wasn't true.

* * *

Urm.. sorry for the short chapter... I found out an easier, quicker means of doing the fic. Using my sister/father's laptop! But it takes trouble transferring them all over the place...

For the (FYI):  
(1)Ah... did I mention Nagi was also one of my fav. characters? Anyway, in this story he's in Uni. Kinda makes him sound old aye? Too bad. He's prodigy. Need alot of brains now...

Translations:  
Löschen aus-Extinguish  
Suche-Search  
Westliche Straße-West Road

Reviewers:  
Mistseeper: Yeah, duh. You know how I feel about forgetting Mist was a Shapeshifter. -.- I didn't see you on weekend. Where did you go! -sob sob-  
Rubymoon: Nice  
Einsam: Ah... A review is never a touch too late on my list! Anyway what are you late about? Ah hah.. so you dislike the fact I take up a third of the story dealing with the guys' lives? I'm sorry... but If I don't mention it, you won't get to how the -ahem- pairings come and blah blah... I hate Schrient too, but unfortuantely, they're going to play a somewhat major part in the story. I hope you like this chapter too!


	5. Interlude I

**Interlude I**

* * *

Ken walked around the shop in search of a new soccer ball since the previous one had mysteriously gone -missing-. It was weird as this was the second it had occurred to him some crazy lunatic tried to steal his favourite soccer ball. 

He had no idea how they managed to steal it from him in the first place. Bah, so much for an assassin pro. He couldn't even swat a mosquito without hitting his own hand. The last time he did he couldn't handle the flowers in the shop for a week. Too bad for sheer strength.

The brunette caught sight of a ball which resembled his previous one and decided to test it out, taking it from the shelf and dribbling it a little. It was lighter than his previous. In fact, the material reduced more friction and it was a lot easier passing it around.

Grinning to himself, he shifted the angle of his foot and kicked it up into the air and caught it with both hands. This was going to be the third ball he's going to get. He went off to the counter and paid for it. The kids he was teaching were going to be quite happy they got a new ball to cover in mud.

Plainly holding in his hand, Ken exited the shop with a whistle escaping his mouth as he headed back to the shop. He noticed the sky was getting dark quickly as the skies were now filled with black clouds, ready to let go of the rain any moment. Thinking it would be more efficient to walk faster, he padded down the sidewalk. It would take him hopefully only ten minutes instead of twenty because it had already started drizzling.

Unfortunately the rain couldn't wait and it fell heavily onto the streets.

"Argh!" He muttered as he began his running. Lucky him he was wearing a water-proof jacket along with a water-proof track pants, but his shoes were already soggy and he felt awfully uncomfortable.

The whole surroundings were blur images of people holding umbrellas as he passed. The rain blurred him more and he had to be too unlucky to trip over his own foot.

He landed on someone who didn't have an umbrella as well. The two crumbled to the ground, arms and legs entangled to each other messily. He composed himself just in time before landing straight down onto the person and got up to his knees, uttering a loud apology.

"Geez, you're such a klutz", the other commented.

Ken immediately felt his vein pop. He apologized and this guy had to say he was a klutz? The brunette was about to protest when the person opposite flicked his fringe and the water splattered onto Ken's face.

"Hey!" He yelled. He brushed the water from his bangs and tried giving a glare when he stopped dead. After removing the rain water from his eyes, he finally got a clearer view of who he had knocked into.

The guy was dress in a pale blue tee with a dark blue jacket and khaki jeans. His green eyes reminded him of his teammate, but his one was…different. He didn't look Japanese at all and neither did he sound like one. The person scoffed at the loud shout and flicked his orange long hair behind him.

Ken almost blushed when he realised what position he was in. The guy had his legs on either sides of his, leaving him dangerously in the middle.

He gave a meep and stood up, face red.

"What's wrong with you?" The other growled as he picked himself up.

"Nothing! Bye!" He stammered and sped off.

"Hey, wait a sec!" He could hear the other echo behind him.

Holy shit. He was blushing for a guy? That was so wrong!

He gave another mutter before he finally reached the shop all panting. The people inside all stared at the brunette who was now drenched in rain.

"Ken-kun! What happened to you?" Omi asked, going over to pass him a towel which was taken from under the counter.

Ken greatly accepted the towel and started wiping his face with it.

"So-?" Omi asked again. "Did you get your soccer ball?'

Ken froze. Oh no. His soccer ball! He must've lost it when he bumped into that orange hair guy!

"Uh…no. They didn't have a good one yet", he lied. Omi just nodded and Ken was relieved that the blonde bought that excuse.

He went to the back to get changed and he thought of the person crossed his mind. He blushed to himself and started talking to himself about forgetting that guy. Yet, no matter how much he tried he couldn't, for that voice he heard and spoke to him sounded too familiar to even stop thinking about.

* * *

Ha. If you're smart, you can figure out how it would turn out in the end! Nyah ha ha. I'm sorry I took so long. Alike Mistskeeper, we both got roadblocks in our story. Mine is only temporarily though. Since I was taking too long on doing the next chap, I decided to fit this story in since if I have to put it in the story, it's only waste of space. I suppose there may be a few more interludes ahead, btu I seriously thank you for reading all the way until here. All your support is appreciated! 

Mistkeeper: Heh heh... I pity you for your com failing on you. I'm sure you'd enjoy this chappie.

Reviews:  
Rubymoon: Eh heh... As I've said before... Thta's for me to know and for you to find out! (I'm not being mean at all. Really. It just ruins the story if I do ever tell. :D)  
LuvSeven: Ur...updated! Is this considered?  
Einsam: Thanks a lot. Yeah I know. The five lovesof Yoji blah blah. It's gonna be heartbreaking for Yotan, Imust say, and that is all I can say. You'll understand the story soon(when I get to it) You are such a smart person. Go figure. I'm surprised you wanted Brad X Ran. I nearly toppled over my chair when I read that part. Then again, you don't have to be disappointed you know. Read the warnings and blah blah part. I stated that there would be more right? I'm a person full of colours! I can always fit that into the story...I guess...Ahhh... about Schu's name right? Indeed, the jap guys pronnounced it as 'Schoo-dik', but there doesn't seem to be aspecific pronounciation or spelling. I mean, all my life I've seen quite a number of people spelling Schu's name. They go like: Schuldich (the one I particularly use the most), Schuldig, Schulderich... Jeez. They don't give up, do they? Anway, my guess is that either you're German and you study english or you're english who studies German. :) Whaoh...I wrote a lot, didn't I? Oh well. It;s already 11 at night but I have to wait some time before I can go over to my aunt's house to sleep.Thanks for reviewing again!


	6. Chapter 10 to 12

Title: Metrepole  
Rating: PG-13. (I'm too lazy to use the new ratings) Decided to remain.  
Disclaimer: I don't own Weiß, but if you find any characters which doesn't belong in the anime, I suppose they're mine...So please, don't complain, don't sue, don't create a racket...  
Pairings: Yoji X Ran, Schuldich X Ken( for a little someone), Mist + Kou (I don't really know if they're that together), a few more undecided yet...  
Summary: Ran lost his mermory and is trying hard to find it while seeking revenge against Takatori. His secret terms with Schwarz is left unknown to his new assassin members. As he struggle to stay sane for some reason, he encounters situations he had never dared imagine.  
Warning: Shounen-ai to the further chapters (that's a guarantee), maybe some OCC-ness somewhere  
Note to readers: Read and review PLEASE... (puppy dog eyes) I know I would have errors here and there, so please ignore them! Most of the words are translated into German, just to tell you, so please don't come up and tell me they're German, because they are! Okay, please go on to the story. The more reviews I get, the faster I do to be exact. Thanks for coming anyway!

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* * *

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_**Omi –** the abandoned _

Nothing. All he saw was nothing. His surroundings were pitch black. He couldn't move either. His arms and legs were numb. He winced as he felt a sudden pain sliding past his wrists. He finally remembered what happened.

On the way back from school he was with the man whom his father was assigned to bring him back. He insisted on walking home; the bodyguard had no choice and did as he was told. Half-way home, some van stopped beside them and three people knocked out his bodyguard.

His bare skin rubbed against the nylon of the rope causing it to be cut. It wasn't deep, but it did hurt a lot. His jaw ached because of some cloth strapped around it. He gave a muffled whine to call out to anyone who was there.

He kept silent as his sharp hearing detected footsteps from some distance away. It wasn't familiar at all. It didn't sound like his father or brothers' footstep. He was clear the way they walked. This…was totally different. It was someone else's. He started to panic.

Mamoru gave a whimpering noise which alerted the kidnappers that their victim was awake. One went up and removed the dark blue bandana wrapped around his eyes followed by untying the cloth around his mouth. He caught a glimpse of four other people sitting a short distance away on the ground, beside them a few things.

"Rise and shine brat. Your father's on the line", one of them snickered, waving a phone in his hand. "We asked your father for a little bit of his cash but he refused to give. Anything to say to him?"

The man walked to him roughly shoved the phone at his ear.

He was quiet for a moment, thinking it was some kind of trick, but it didn't matter. He was too scared to even consider whether the person on the other line was his real father or not.

"Papa? Save me papa!" He cried weakly. "It's scary here! Save me!"

The man took away the phone and listened to what the person on the other line said. His face grew from a distinct grin to a furious expression. He took the phone away from his ear and threw it hard against the wall, causing it to shatter into bits, wires all flying out.

The blonde flinched as he saw the dismantled phone on the ground.

Why didn't his father come to save him? Maybe he was tricking them? His hopes got a little too high betting on the second option. He decided to wait when one of the guys picked an axe up and walked towards him.

"You're dead meat, kid", he snickered. "Your papa doesn't want to save you."

"You're lying!" He fought back. "My papa loves me! He would never leave me! He's probably planning to stop you right now!"

"Brave words from a weak, pathetic soul, don't you think guys?" He tossed a look over to his comrades. They laughed and picked their weapons: a rope, two knives and a chain including the axe which the person in front of him was holding.

He began to panic, yet he had to stay brave. He believed his father would come…

He shut his eyes tight as the man rose the axe above his head, preparing to slice down. Mamoru heard the hiss of metal before his ears and the sound of flesh splitting apart drowned his screamed.

A second later he realised it wasn't his flesh which tore apart, but the guy who nearly killed him. He opened his eyes and stared horror stricken as the body before him was in pieces; not a single bone attached to muscle.

He screamed again in fear as another guy shouted in pain before his body split into numerous portions just alike the mutilated body before him. The other three friends gasped as they watch two of their team go down to the ground in chunks.

One of them took out a gun from his back pocket and pointed to the door (it was dark and Mamoru couldn't see it clearly).

"Who's there?" He demanded, cocking the gun.

Soft footsteps could be heard and it was getting closer and the three started to tremble. Mamoru felt a chill go down his spine when he felt a brush of wind past his face. He heard something though, like a whisper. The sudden fear washed away when he could finally hear what it was.

It said 'run away'.

Suddenly feeling confident, he scrambled to his feet and realised that the ropes which were tying him fell to the ground in small strips. Making use of when the other three weren't aware, he pushed through them and out through the dark doorway.

He could see nothing, yet he could hear the people behind shouting. After that several gunshots took place the voices of the men. They weren't shouting, but screaming to be exact. Had someone stopped them?

Whoever it was, he was glad to be out of hostage. He caught a faint brightness of light and finally reached the end of the tunnel which seemed forever

**The worst prison is a closed heart.**

**Chapter 10: Riot Building**

Yoji got himself rather ready for the mission. His watch in place but at the moment on the table next to the bed. He got up onto sitting position and grinned down at the two fairly naked bodies of women beside him. Okay, so Riot does have some pretty girls. But heck. He had no time for these kind of things right now. He had to go find the new timings the three bosses are hanging in the building. Just like when he was here with Asuka…

He shook his head to shake off the thought. He had to concentrate and not be alike last time. He was alone and he had to accomplish it as soon as possible or else the two youngsters would start complaining of his taking his own sweet time(which was particularly risking of getting caught).

With a slight skill he crawled out bed without waking the sleeping beauties. Once that was done, he put on a brown coat, only wearing his boxers underneath. He put on his watch, two earphones by his head and stuffed a small ipod into his pocket, making it look as if he was listening. Yet there was nothing. Boring. Omi's idea of tricking others.

He made his way out of the room and pretended to act normal, going down the lift. He continued making his way through the building which seems more like 'paradise'. Alright, where was the main room? He spent fifteen frustrating minutes searching and still hasn't found it. Giving up, he brought his watch to his mouth where Omi installed a tiny mouth piece.

"Bombay, a little help here?" He said softly, knowing that the chibi would hear him.

"Hai. What do you need now?" the younger assassin's voice spoke through one of the ear pieces.

"Where's the main room?" He asked as he fished out a cigarette from his pocket. Remembering he left it in the room, he growled.

"It should be on the tenth floor. The same one as the discussion hall. Oh, be careful. That place may be guarded."

"Thanks."

Tenth floor. Well, what nerves. He was now on the eleventh floor. He snorted in irritation and looked at the lift beside him and glanced upwards. The two lifts were at the twentieth story and the other was worst, going at the twenty-sixth. Sighing, he decided to take the stairs instead.

He opened the door which led to a rather shabby looking stairway. Actually, it gave the blonde a slight creepy feeling. In any way, he still made the way down the steps and surprisingly the floor was cooling to his bare feet.

Remember to wash them later, he reminded himself.

He reached down halfway when he heard voices. He bent down and peeped over to the other end of the stairway where a partially transparent door was. His brows furrowed when he recognized that three were the bosses Weiss was supposed to eliminate, and another he wished he never heard.

Takatori Reiji.

It wasn't only him, four other people followed behind and Yoji dreaded who it was.

Schwarz.

Talk about bad luck. He shifted further from the door and decided to inform Bombay.

"Hey, Takatori and Schwarz are here. I'll be needing back up to get out of here", he hissed softly.

"Okay. Meet me and Siberian at the back door. We'll be there."

Tonight wasn't going to be his night. He might as well try it later. The blonde paused when he heard someone approach the stairway's door at the eleventh floor. Thinking quick, he lay flat against the stairs.

Two workers came into the stairway and saw the blonde lying on the stairs.

"Hey, what's this guy doing?"

Knowing that he had to act, he reached out a lazy hand.

"Any you guys know where to get beer?"

The two stared at the blonde.

Works every time. Before having a night he usually drink gallons of beer, but it didn't seem to affect him much since he had numerous years of 'experience' drinking it.

"You're drunk man", one of them said and helped Yoji up.

"Oh come on! I'm not drunk! How 'bout I treat you one too?" He asked, raising one finger.

"No thanks. Which room are you from, sir?"

"Hm… 3501… I think", he finished and pretended to go unconscious. He wanted to laugh when he heard the other two trying to wake him up. If this was going to be fun he would wake up and shout boo at them.

They dragged him off to his room and managed to dig out the card key. The two women had already left and they dumped him on the bed. They left quickly and when the door clicked close, Yoji rose back to his feet and stretched.

"Jeez, those kids had better learn how to carry people properly", he grunted. He began to dress in proper clothing and made his way down the building with little effort. He went to the back and found Omi and Ken hiding behind a cloud of bushes.

"Finally! You know I'm starting to get irritated waiting for you", Ken complained.

"Well, sorry. You didn't have to play drunk and bonk your head against one of the steps of a staircase."

"Yeah, but it didn't hurt", an unfamiliar voice came about. The three turned to face what they thought they avoided.

Schuldich faced them with smug grin with Farfarello and Nagi behind.

"So, what might you three doing hiding in the bushes?" He asked curiously. He rubbed his chin, acting like he was thinking. "I see you're trying to steal –something-, but ah, you three are powerful, aren't you? It's so hard to know what you're thinking of…"

"Leave or you'll get hurt", Ken growled, resisting the urge to rip the grin off the telepath's face.

"Make me", came the response.

The white-haired Irishman immediately attacked, drawing a small blade from the band around his upper arm. He cut through the air, dispersing the group members. Yoji lashed out his wire which wrapped around the psycopath's wrist instead of neck. He pulled, but the other resisted and pulled, causing the wire to snap.

Schuldich made his advance on the youngest, using his speed which succeeded in giving a blow to the blonde's abdomen. Omi cried out as he plundered to the ground. He hitched and eyes widened when the German walked towards him.

"Zurück!" He shouted.

Schuldich simply said 'Verbannen ' and the spell broke.

Weiss never had a face on combat before and now it became worrying for Omi. Ken was busy trying to deflect Nagi's telekinetic power along with the Schatten Spell. Yoji was also having problems with the Irishman as the spells cast didn't seem to affect Farfarello the least bit. Deciding the best, he called out for the rest to retreat.

The other two were shocked at the order they were given and caused their concentration to break, leaving Yoji with a large slash across his chest from Farfarello and Ken a broken arm and leg from the combine forces of telekinetic power and a spell.

Omi had received another blow at the same spot and he went down to the ground, impact causing blood to spew out of his mouth unwillingly.

"Well, look whose words backfired?" Schuldich snickered, looking at Ken. The brunette bit back the insult.

Schuldich grabbed the youngest by the hair, hauling him off the ground painfully hanging by the roots of his hair.

"Shall I kill you or not?" He asked.

Omi took to spitting the blood which collected in his mouth at the telepath. The German turned his head to the side and the blood splattered across his left cheek.

"I'll take that as a no", he shrugged. He raised his hand in position of all his fingers together, facing his nails at the blonde. He ignoring the yelling of the older blonde and brunette's as he pulled back his hand, getting ready to strike.

"Bruch", Schuldich heard from out of nowhere before he felt the bones in the arm he was holding Omi in cracked. He shouted in pain as he let go of the body and held onto his broken arm.

He hissed furiously, facing the darker end of the trees.

Omi flipped over on his stomach when he heard something too familiar to forget.

The exact same footsteps he heard years ago when he was a child. He got up onto his knees and finally got to see who the person who helped him was.

Slowly, out from behind the shadows of the trees, a person dressed in a black cloak appeared. From head to toe were black; arms and legs under the dark cloak together with black boots. The only exception was a silver mask which covered the upper half of the face. The eye pieces were also silver which had three red streaks across on either side covering the cheeks.

The hair was blood red. It resembles too much like Aya's except that it was long and was flowing behind, half-way down the back. Whether it was a guy or girl he couldn't tell, but judging from the voice before he guessed it was male.

"Who the hell are you?" Schuldich growled. From the looks of it even the strong telepath couldn't read his thoughts.

The other remained silent. He just took a side-step and vanished into thin dust before disappearing without a trace.

The few there stared in shock at the sudden disappearance. They hadn't heard him saying anything, and he could teleport without casting it?

Crawford appeared behind, stepping up to his team and the enemies'.

"Mastermind, Berserk, Prodigy. Let's leave. Mr. Takatori is heading back to Groß."

"Ch. I'll get you three", Schuldich swore and left, holding his arm in the other. Nagi and Farfarello followed behind and their shadows faded along with the dead of the night.

Chapter 11: Forgotten

Ran groaned and threw an arm over his eyes when the heat around him stirred him awake from his sleep. The bed was definitely not his. The one he was on was slightly harder and rather uncomfortable. He got up and brushed away the sweat forming on his forehead. Everything around him was dizzy. How long was he asleep? Schuldich said he took a pill which would knock him out two days. Had two days really gone past?

He swung his legs off the bed and noticed it was Nagi's, thankfully. He went out of the teenager's room and down the stairs and heard Schuldich yelling at the top of his lungs.

He went down the stairs and watched, almost giggling when he saw Nagi wrapping up Schuldich's arm. The telekinetic boy wasn't giving the least sympathy, but he was the one in charge of injuries during missions. Schuldich had better be grateful that it wasn't Farfarello mending his arm instead.

The two Schwarz members heard a soft sound and turned to Ran. Nagi gave a tiny smile and Ran returned it with one of his own. Schuldich mumbled under his breath and yelled an 'ow' when Nagi squeezed the bandage around the telepath's arms, making it 'nice and tight' on purpose.

"You little brat! If I were fine I'd use detergent to clean that face of yours!"

"Shut up", Nagi scoffed at the remark and put the bandage aside.

"How'd you get that?" Ran asked as he sat on the one-seater.

Schuldich grumbled, "Some jerk who was made up of dust."

"I'm sure you'll live."

"Thanks a lot, you cold prick. I think he could've broken my back!"

"I thought you were strong?"

"Of course I am!" Schuldich boasted and threw himself against the backrest of the couch, hurting his arm in the process. "Ow… But I mean, that guy was unnatural. Firstly, I couldn't receive a single detail about him. Even that blonde member of yours, I still am able to but this…" He paused. "Anyway, secondly, he didn't have to use any spell and he could disappear. Not to mention, he kinda resembled you."

Ran glared at the telepath.

"What? I'm serious! He had the exact same color hair as you!"

"I'm leaving. Tell Brad that." The German frowned but gave in to the other redhead.

"Will do", Schuldich said, waving as Ran put on his shoes and went out the door. Nagi came out with a wet towel in his hands. He glanced at the closed door and went towards the couches. He dumped the cloth on the table and looked at Schuldich.

"What?'

"You didn't tell him, did you?"

"No. I didn't want to make him worry."

"This is getting dangerous. This is the second time Crawford didn't foresee it."

"I know, I know, but we can't do anything about it, can we?"

"You could've lost your life to that person."

"But I didn't. Did you find any info on the person who used 'slash and burn'?"

Nagi shook his head.

"It could be the same person after all…"

--

Ran felt a tingly feeling in him. It wasn't due to the wound which was now giving him less problem. It was something else, but he couldn't put a finger in it. He slept with no recollection of his dream. It wasn't unusual to wake up with no memories of your dreams, but this was different. He felt something amiss.

He hadn't been back at the shop for two days now. They team would probably go crazy knowing he went MIA for two whole days. What was he to do? He shook the matter off and headed back to Koneko no Tsumi. It was no surprise it wasn't open. According to Schuldich before the team was pretty much battered.

He needed to think of an excuse of his disappearance.

He entered from the back door and found Omi eating a slice of cake with a bandage around his neck. He went up to the youngest, tapping him on the shoulder when the blonde jumped at the sudden touch, dropping his fork into the basin.

"Oh geez, Yoji-kun, don't scare me like that!" He said with an odd, squeaky voice. Maybe that was what the bandage was for.

"It's me, Omi", Ran said flatly. The blonde turned around with a look of surprise on his face.

"Aya-kun! Where did you go these two days? Everyone was worried sick!" He squealed happily with the same squeaky voice.

Ran raised a brow.

"Never mind, and don't mind me. Yesterday we got into a fight with Schwarz. Yoji-kun and Ken-kun were injured rather badly so I decided not to open the shop today."

"I know", Ran said softly. Omi gave a questioning noise and Ran shook his head. "Nothing. I'll go see if they need anything." He finished and went up to the second story where he heard a bang. He didn't really want to worry, but the noises behind the two doors were rather interesting in a bad way.

He knocked the door of Yoji's room but received no response. He opened the door to find Yoji with one large bandage around his chest and Ken in bandages on his right arm and left leg fighting for the bathroom in between the two rooms. They were currently on the ground, wrestling with each other and Yoji was at a better advantage.

"Cut it out", Ran said loudly.

"Stay out of this Aya!" Yoji growled as he shoved Ken to the ground away from the bathroom. Ken shouted a 'hey' and reached out to grab Yoji's collar.

Alright. Yoji had just called him but hadn't noticed he was back, not that he really needed him to notice. Ran got pretty pissed and tore the both of them apart.

"Will you two shut up!" He growled.

"A-Aya!" Ken stammered. Yoji took the chance and slipped out of Ran's grip and went into the toilet, closing the door behind him.

"YOJI!" Ken shouted.

"You two never change", Ran snorted. He let go of Ken and went out of the room.

"Hey Aya! Where have you been these two days?"

"None of your business."

"Well, it is partially, because you were absent and nearly caused up trouble."

"You should've been able to handle it yourselves", Ran said with his cold attitude back in place.

Ken grabbed Ran by the collar with his left hand with had equal strength to his right hand.

"Omi was nearly killed because of you", he snarled through grit teeth.

"But I helped him, didn't I?" He growled back, swiping at the arm. Ken let go, staring at Ran with shock.

"What?" The redhead snarled again.

"What did you mean by 'I helped him'?"

Ran looked back at the brunette puzzled. "What did I say?"

"You said 'but I helped him, didn't I?'. What do you mean by that?"

"I said no such thing", Ran protested.

"You did!"

"I DID NOT!" Ran shouted and ran out of the room. He ran back to his room and slammed the door shut behind him. He was breathing hard. What in the world was Ken saying? He didn't say anything at all. He didn't recall even opening his mouth.

"Oh god… What's happening to me?"

--

Ken remained motionless until Yoji came out. The blonde stared at the brunette's back, went over and gave it a smack. Ken jumped and turned over.

"Yo, mourning over the loss of the bathroom?" Yoji teased.

Ken frowned. "No. I was wondering about what Aya said."

"Well, what did he say?"

"I was just trying to talk some sense into him that his absence nearly caused Omi his life when he said 'but I helped him, didn't I?'. After that I asked what he was talking about but he looked as if he blanked out."

"Are you sure you heard the right thing?"

"Positive. He's locked up in his room right now…"

"Well, I'll deal with him. Bathroom's all yours now", Yoji showed a thumb to the toilet and went out of his room.

He stood in front of Ran's door and knocked. The reply was 'go away' and he leaned against the door.

"I think you owe us and explanation, Ice Princess", Yoji sang. The blonde yelped when the door suddenly opened and he went backwards along with the door as it was pulled open. He landed hard on his butt and hissed.

"I don't owe you anything, so go away."

"Oh come on. I won't talk about what Ken was blabbering about", Yoji promised as he picked himself up, brushing his pants.

"Fine. What do you want?"

"I just need to ask something. Do you believe in fortune telling?"

One fine brow rose.

"Just answer yes or no."

"Yes and no."

"Right. Tell me about it."

"Why the hell do you want to know?"

"Pretty please?"

"Yes, sometimes it is true. No, sometimes it's a lie."

"Quite direct, aren't you?"

Ran snorted.

"Okay, okay. You see, I met this old man. He told me my 'fortune'. It was about my love life. The first woman loved me but I didn't take notice of her. The second I thought died isn't dead. The third-"

"It doesn't concern me", the redhead interrupted.

"Look, I'm just telling you."

"I don't want to know."

"You're such an asshole, you know that?"

"I'm the ass, you're the hole", Ran spat back and slammed the door straight into the blonde's face.

Yoji growled. "That wasn't funny!"

Unfortunately, Ken and Omi were chuckling a short distance away. Yoji glared at them and they both stopped.

"Sorry", Omi apologized and ran off. Ken scratched his head and shrugged.

**_Chapter 12: From the past to the future and back again_**

Where am I?

_You don't know_

Who's there?

_You don't need to care_

Answer me!

_Your dream_

My… dream?

_Your forgotten dream. _

What are you talking about?

_You're not meant to exist. You were meant to die._

Shut up!

_What can you see? What do you feel?_

I can't see anything but black. I feel nothing either.

_That is the real you. You see nothing but darkness and you have no emotions. Why do you live then?_

I don't get it…

_You can run, you can hide, but soon it will find you…_

What? What's going to find me?

_You're not meant to exist._

Stop saying that! Answer me!

_Your abilities brings anguish. Your knowledge brings darkness. Your feelings bring Death._

Don't…

_This is the real thing and you can never run away from it. Never…_

--

Ran nearly screamed but held back just in time. His body was drenched in sweat despite of the cold night. A trembling palm raked his wet hair. He took several deep breaths and glanced over to the clock beside him. Five in the morning. He'd usually wake at six, but since he was up and awake he might as well deal with it.

He placed the covers aside and walked out, the place all dark. He made his way to the kitchen and flicked on the lights, forgetting and momentarily blinding him for several seconds. When he had them adjusted fine he took a cup off the rack and washed it before filling it with warm water. He started to feel a little cold and he looked over to the thermometer which was bought by Omi, pasted on the refrigerator. It read sixteen degrees. It was closing to autumn soon. No wonder it was particularly cold.

He was also only dressed in one white t shirt and pants that reached to his knees. He sighed. He didn't think he could sleep again. That nightmare caused him to be fully awake. He took the cup and sat at the kitchen table. He sighed and rested his chin on his hand.

The dream before had to be a joke. There was no way a normal person like him could… whatever that voice said. He forgot how it sounded like. He could only remember the last line just before he woke though.

_This is the real thing and you can never run away from it. Never._

A thump caught his attention. He turned around to see Omi descending the stairs sleepily. The blonde rubbed his eyes, squinting at the bright kitchen light.

"Hm? Aya-kun? Why're you up so early?" Omi asked, covering his mouth for a yawn.

"Couldn't sleep. What about you?"

"Hm… I've got a test I'm still not ready for."

"I see."

Omi hobbled to the counter and filled a cup with water before downing it.

"Ne, Aya-kun, I don't mean to be nosy or anything. But regarding what Ken-kun said-" He put his hand ups. "I mean! It's not that I don't believe you or anything! It's just that…"

Ran looked at the blonde.

"That person… saved my twice. If I could, I would hope to know him personally…Wouldn't that be great?"

"You already know him."

"What?"

Ran shook his head. "Sorry?"

"You just…oh, never mind! I'll go study now. Oh yeah, Aya-kun, do you think I could go to my friend's house tomorrow night for a barbeque? I'd most likely sleep over so I won't be back until the next day."

Ran nodded an acknowledgement and watch as Omi trotted off up the stairs.

_Not again…Something I didn't say came out of my mouth._

He knew. Omi had the same look as Ken. He grit his teeth and rested his head on his crossed arms on the kitchen table.

"This is going to be bad", he said to no one.

--

_It's not a dream. It's a fact._

You again. Leave me alone!

_I can't. I'm in you. I'm only waiting._

Waiting?

_Yes. Waiting for the right time._

Stop saying such things! I don't get you!

_You'll understand it. Soon._

Tell me now!

_I can't. Not to a person who can…

* * *

Yahoo! Finally the next chapter! I really gotta hand it to you guys! Thanks for being with me until now! I LOOOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEE YOUUUUUU! _

Oh yes. In case you're wondering -Ahem- why Ken didn't know it was Schu... Let's make it fun shall we:) Anyway. It wouldn't be fun if Ken knew it was Schuschu right away, would it? Nyah ha... Mist would kill me... Ignore my insanity and lack of conscious...

No FYI's...Amazing... O.O

Translations:  
Zurück-Back  
Verbannen-Dispel  
Bruch-Break (ouch)

Reviews:  
Darkdranzer: Eh heh... About Accidentally Yours... that's the prequel of Silent Bells bu Yutaka-chan... You might wanna read that too. :) Thanks for your review too.  
Einsam: Yep. An interlude. My brain burst before (kidding). I didn't know what to write but to show I'm alive, I did a small interlude. Besides, Mistskeeper wanted a little 'action', so why not? Ahhaha... I'm sorry Brad hasn't made a move on Ran yet. I'll do it in the next chapter! And I don't mind multiple reviews. :) You can review over and over. I'd love them!  
Rubymoon: You enjoy attacking the review button, don't you? Oh well! Still added on my list!  
Katten: I like it too:)  
Mistskeeper: O.o Yeah, I kinda noticed, LOADS of people love making Ken the klutz. Either that or the clumsy (means the same thing, I know), clueless dopey. :0 I'm not that sure if Ken has to keep tripping on Schu. But I could always make it a funny part when Ken lands -on- Schu's injured arm. That's GONNA be funny... XD


	7. Chapter 13 to 14

Title: Metrepole  
Rating: PG-13. (I'm too lazy to use the new ratings) Rating MAY change depending on the topics  
Disclaimer: I don't own Weiß, but if you find any characters which doesn't belong in the anime, I suppose they're mine...So please, don't complain, don't sue, don't create a racket...  
Pairings: Unknown yet. When decided, I will put up.  
Summary: (This is centred on Ran, okay?) Ran lost his mermory and is trying hard to find it while seeking revenge against Takatori. His secret terms with Schwarz is left unknown to his new assassin members. As he struggle to stay sane for some reason, he encounters situations he had never dared imagine.  
Warning: Shounen-ai to the further chapters (that's a guarantee), maybe some OCC-ness somewhere  
Note to readers: Read and review PLEASE... (puppy dog eyes) I know I would have errors here and there, so please ignore them! Most of the words are translated into German, just to tell you, so please don't come up and tell me they're German, because they are! Okay, please go on to the story. The more reviews I get, the faster I do to be exact. Thanks for coming anyway!

_

* * *

Even after saying goodbye, would I miss you?  
Even after saying sorry, would I understand everything?  
The tears now took over the kisses you gave me  
My world became the snowy skies of winter_

_In my hands your warmth remained in pieces  
__How do I combine them back again?_

_7th day of the 7th month fell the sudden snow  
__Didn't open my eyes to hope it was just an illusion  
__I stood beside the world  
__Stared blankly at the snow  
__Which covered the street where I met you_

_7th day of the 7th month night turned to day  
__I lost the feeling, seeing the edge of ending our love  
__I looked over the borders of the endless skies  
__Unable to hear your goodbye_

**Reason often makes mistakes but conscience never does.**

**Chapter 13: Advance Attack on Kritiker**

"Tiefer is a day late, have you noticed?" Kenta asked as he poured water into his mug. Kazuma sat beside him at the counter, snoozing away.

"Hm… I have to admit. I'm starting to worry as well. She should've been over latest yesterday, but until now there isn't a trace of her", Mist agreed as he read the papers. "Further more she's not the type who enjoys not being on time."

Kou snorted and rolled about on the coach, trying to find a comfortable spot to sleep in. Still unable to find one, he propped himself up on his elbows. He was about to speak when he paused, sensing something wrong.

"Why… there's smell of blood", Kou growled. Mist tore his eyes from the papers and glanced at Kou.

The demon frowned as he sniffed the air to get a better scent. It was familiar. Very familiar.

"Tiefer!" He shouted. Kazmua jumped and fell off his chair while Kenta got up to his feet. Mist lashed his hand towards the door and the door flung open, revealing Tiefer leaning against the wall, bloodied all over.

"Hello boys…I was… about to ring the bell", she panted. Kenta, being the nearest to the door, rushed up and grabbed the woman before she collapsed to the ground.

"She's out, but still breathing", Kenta said, his hand checking her pulse.

"Bring her in. She must've got into some bad company or some sort", Kazuma said, now fully awake.

"No", Kou cut in. "She was being attacked. The smell of gunpowder is fresh. Someone set it up."

"Then we'll have to get out of here. They could be on the way here since Tiefer isn't dead yet", Mist continued. He made two circles with his hands, forming rings using white air. It wrapped around the woman's body and acted as a bandage. This method was much more effective than the normal cloth bandages.

Kou hissed.

"They're coming. Two hundred(1)."

"That quick eh? They must be flirting death", Kazuma scoffed.

"You two get the car and take Tiefer along. Kou and I will stall them. Five minutes!" Mist ordered. Kazuma and Kenta nodded and left the house with Kazuma carefully carrying the injured body on his back.

The two left in the house watched as their teammates left when the sound of approaching people could be herd.

"Pathetic humans", Kou commented. The skin on his back stretched outwards as his wings go under his vest and spreading out.

"That's for you to say", Mist sniffed as Kou held onto the smaller man by the waist. Kou grinned and charged out of the house through the window, shattering the glass to bits. He flew up to the roof and placed Mist on top.

"There they are", Kou said, pointing to the distance.

"I know even if you didn't tell me", Mist said and raised a hand. "Nebel."

Immediately, the air in the surroundings condensed, forming clouds about.

"Twenty people aren't even enough to take down one of my finger", Kou snorted. He bit his fore finger and began a chant as wrote a word in the air. The blood flowing from his finger formed the words written mid-air and glowed bright red.

"Hölle drängt."

The word flashed and three creatures of the same species appeared. A cross between a wolf and a dog, it was dark grey with both ears clipped crescent-shaped. Its neck fur was frilled, sharp like spikes. From the elbows to the paws were smoky, as if evaporating into the air. Same went with the hind legs. The three howled simultaneously in eagerness to make their kill. Yet, an invisible chain held them back unless Kou had ordered them to go.

Mist and Kou turned their attention to behind them where the twenty people were, all ready with their assigned weapons in hand.

"How did they get up here?"

"I wouldn't care. They're probably trained, yet not worth wasting time for", Kou yawned.

One of the men disapproved of that insult and dashed towards the duo, weapon raised. Kou smirked and released one of the Hell Hounds of its invisible chain and it ran full speed to feast on its first victim. Only one clamp across the man's neck was needed to send him where they were from.

The other men, upon seeing their comrade in trouble, stampeded towards them when Kou finally released the remaining two. The Hell Hounds wasted no time chomping on the first victim they saw and attacking the next one which tried to injure it.

"Damon! Mist!" Kenta's voice echoed through the white smoke.

"Time to go. Enjoy yourself boys", Mist smiled and held onto Kou who took off into the air, flapping his large wings. Even before any of the attackers could react they were already on the road to death as the Hell Hounds took no damage from their weapons. They died with one bite as the poison from the Hell Hounds fangs killed them instantly.

Kou dived through the white fog directly downwards which almost seemed like bungee jumping. The mist had blocked most of his views, but he knew when to stop. Once he caught sight of the grey of the road he flapped downwards missing the ground by a few inches. By now Mist was already used to it and had no fear of hitting the ground.

Kazuma drove out the blue jeep and skidded before them, stopping a meter away from them.

"Let's hit the road to Puerto Rico!" He shouted.

--

"What?" Three of them chorused.

Manx shook her head.

"Two branches and three groups have been attacked yesterday. One branch is still standing at the moment while only one of the three groups fell", she continued, a bit irritated by the interruption by her group. "Blaue Löcher is heading here at the moment to take shelter. I hope you support them with your hospitality."

"But Manx. Don't we have to do something to help?" Yoji asked.

Manx shook her head. "The only thing you can do now is to stay alive when we need you. About the case in Riot Building, it shall be held off for another time." She paused and scanned the room. "You four are our key to throwing off Takatori. We need you alive and well, do you understand?"

The group nodded in agreement, but Yoji remained watching her with an unapproved look.

"Good. From Miami to Puerto Rico should take about a day. Be composed then", Manx said as she slipped her handbag to her shoulder. "I'll take my leave."

"Will you be okay?" Omi asked as he led her out of the mission room. The three watched as the blonde made his way upstairs with the female redhead, discussing about some matters.

"Damn. I was just planning to go back today", Yoji growled, banging his fist against the wall.

Ken stayed in silence while Ran got up from the seat and left the two behind.

--

Takatori lifted his gaze from the documents to his worker.

"What do you mean Kritiker was attacked?"

"Based on what we know, sir. Estet was the one who launched attack on Kritiker as they believe Persia would stand in the way of our partnership", the man replied.

"Estet have such arrogant people. Fine. You may leave."

The worker bowed and left the room. Noticing someone was entering, he left it opened at another went in.

"Mr. Takatori."

"Masahiro, you're late once again", Takatori huffed as he tidied his table.

"And once again, my apologies. I had to deal with a meeting between my fellow doctors."

Takatori snorted. "What could be more important than following the appointment I have set for you?"

"I have a case for one of my… friend. His younger sister has been in the hospital for the past two years in coma until today. The people in the hospital were rather unpleased with the fact that we have to keep a living yet unconscious figure."

"Oh really? I do remember hospitals and clinics these days do away with comatose people right away."

"Yes, but this is one unusual patient I have. She hasn't aged the least bit for the past few years."

The older man rubbed his chin in wonder. "Interesting indeed. What is her name?"

"Fujimiya Aya. The younger sister of Fujimiya Ran."

"Hm… I wonder if he was able to cast a spell."

Makoto gave a chuckle. "He is neither Zauberei nor Schatten, Mr. Takatori. He is a normal human being."

"I would like to see this Fujimiya person. Do you think you can arrange a meeting?"

"That is no problem at all sir", Makoto laughed. "There is nothing I cannot do."

Fujimiya, Takatori thought. It sounded very familiar.

"Before I leave sir, may I ask how is the search for your perfect Diamant?"

"Bah, those sick bitches at the Riot building only had eyes for money. I want one that is full of passion, not full of shit. Furthermore those three there were terrible of being in charge."

"I see", Makoto smiled. "I'll check with your secretary your timings. Any preferable days?"

"As soon as possible."

Makoto bowed and went over to the door and saw Schuldich waiting outside. The telepath grinned at the ex-soldier.

"Interesting specimen to have, eh?" Schuldich sneered.

"I'd suggest you mind your own business before someone gets hurt", Makoto said while passing the German.

"Ooohhh", Schuldich moaned. "I'm so scared."

Makoto shot a glare over his shoulders and ignored as he entered the lift.

--

Shortly after Manx left, the four guys went up to the living room to discuss the matter. Since Manx left, Ken kept babbling about how Kritiker was low on alert and therefore the losses. Yoji repeatedly asked him to shut up but the brunette continued on as if it would give him an answer.

"Stop asking over and over again you twit!" Yoji yelled as he drove his fist into the brunette's head.

"Ow! Watch it! Anyway, what I said was true! Kritiker wouldn't be that stupid enough to let this many groups and branches fall!"

"Why you little punk", Yoji growled, but was interrupted when Omi's odd voice shouted.

"That's enough you two! Can't we settled this without bothering the neighbours? Really, guys, if you keep this up I'm going to throw you two out!"

"But he started it!" Both Ken and Yoji protested, pointing at each other and they both picked up where they left off.

"Shut up!" Ran's harsh voice roared. "Or I'll beat the shit out of you", he growled.

The playboy and goalie tossed daggers and glares at each other before settling down onto the couches far apart from each other. Omi sighed and propped himself down.

"So, who're the people who makes up Blaue Löcher?" Yoji asked curiously, placing his arm on top of the smaller blondes head. Omi frowned and slid the heavy arm off.

"Well, if I'm not wrong, the people should be Kazuma, Koujenrou, Kenta…"

"The three 'K-steers'(2)?" Yoji mused to himself.

"What? A name close to mine?" Ken shrieked.

"Well, it's written the same way, but he only has an extra word behind", Omi stretched on the seat he was on. "The last one is…Now, who was that again?" He asked, looking at Yoji and Ken.

"What? You expect us to know if you don't?" The two grumbled.

"Mist", Ran said out loud. The rest turned their attention to their leader who stood against the wall.

"Right! Mist, that's his name", Omi thanked for the help given.

"Mist? That's a weird name for one. It doesn't even sound Japanese."

"That's because he doesn't remember his real name", Ran cut in. Ken looked at the redhead in surprise.

"You know all these people?"

Ran gave a shrug. "I don't know. It just came to me."

"What do you mean 'it just came to me'?"

"I said I don't know", Ran growled, walking to leave the room.

"Oi, where're you going? We have to get the place ready before Blaue Löcher comes!" Ken shouted.

"I'm sure you can take care of it", Ran finished and left the house, not bothering to even lock it.

"Someday when this guy pisses me off so bad, I'm going to kick his sorry ass", Ken muttered as he limped towards the kitchen. Omi sweat-dropped and helped his friend get to the kitchen and getting whatever he need. Yoji remained seated on the sofa, staring at the door which the redhead had just left.

He lit a cigarette and was about to take a drag when a fork flew past his face and jammed against the wall.

"What the hell! Omi!" Yoji barked.

Omi peeked out of the kitchen door. "For your information Mister, you haven't recovered yet. Until then, no smoking! That's an order!"

Yoji mumbled and removed the fork embedded into the wall. Jeez, the kid may be small but the force he used to deliver his weapons was probably even better than his. Ha, brute force, Yoji chuckled to himself.

In the kitchen Omi heard the blonde giving a low laugh and he stuck his head out in wonder.

"Have you been possessed or something?" Omi asked.

"No. I'm just thinking of a good nickname for you, Omi-chu", Yoji grinned.

The younger blonde gave an angry look back.

"Ha ha. How about 'brute force'?"

"Well, Mr. I'm-so-good-at-calling-other-people-names, I don't need a special nickname thank you very much", Omi huffed and turned away from the exit, going beck to dealing with his own things with Yoji chuckling in the living room.

"Yup. Hasn't changed a bit", Yoji smiled as he crushed the burnt cig in one hand while the other played with the fork, twirling between two fingers.

**Chapter 14: White meets Blue**

Ran strolled alongside the road which he was too familiar by. It stretched through most of the streets and getting anywhere was the most convenient with this road in town. That was the reason why it was busy all round the clock.

He paused when he felt a sudden breeze brush past him. He looked around and noticed something odd. The wind was blowing, yet no one seemed to take notice of it. Hell, the wind was getting stronger and none of the people around him look like they even see him.

Something's wrong, he thought to himself. I…can't move?

That moment a white flash blinded him and in his mind, various images formed in his head.

Yoji getting shot be several men, him being with a woman.

Ken in direct range of a person who has a gun pointed directly at his head.

Omi held onto by a monster.

Ran hissed in pain as a feeling of electrocution shot through his head, causing a huge impact on what he was trying to concentrate on. He grimaced as his mind felt as if it was being compressed.

Violet eyes shot open when Ran felt a warm hand on his back, between the shoulders. Breathing hard, he collected his strength to turn his head over his shoulder to see who had just tapped him.

Bent beside him stood Crawford, looking at him with his emotionless expression.

"Are you feeling alright?" The precog asked, reaching out his hand.

Ran nodded and accepted the help, getting back on his feet instead of squatting there.

"Let's get something to drink. Maybe you'll feel better", Crawford suggested. The redhead kept silent, just nodding once again as he tried to focus on where he was walking.

They dropped by at the nearest café and fortunately there were plenty of seats. Ran randomly sat on one and leaned back, one arm rubbing his aching head.

"Tea or coffee?"

"Tea", the other muttered. Crawford gave one nod and went off, coming back with a tray where two cups and one croissant were placed on. Crawford distributed the drinks, leaving the croissant in the middle of the table.

"You don't look so good. Have you had your breakfast?"

Ran barely managed to shake his head.

Crawford sighed and pushed the plate with the croissant towards Ran.

"Here, you should eat something. I don't wish to carry around a white body."

The redhead raised a brow. "Was that supposed to be humorous?" He muttered.

Crawford shook his head.

Ran stared at the crescent-shaped bun and sniffed.

"Can you take half?"

"No."

Ran frowned and took the croissant, nervously nibbling at it when he noticed Crawford was watching him.

"Brad, stop looking at me", Ran grumbled.

"I'm not looking at you. I'm having a vision, that's all."

Ran blinked. "Oh."

Speaking of vision, were the previous images reality? They seemed real. No. It seemed more than real. He could feel, hear and think as each image of his teammates passed. Anyway, why his teammates? Is there a similarity behind them?

Ran took a deep breath.

Yoji and Ken were getting shot at while Omi was being held onto by a monster? It didn't make sense. Yet the brunette and blonde were of different times. Where the places were he didn't manage to catch. For some reason he felt…they were going to be killed.

Crawford drank from his coffee as he watched the redhead sitting opposite him lost in his thoughts. The visions he had received were unimportant. Seeing that Ran had stayed too long not knowing what was going around him, he reached over and pat his shoulder, getting a jump from the other.

"What?" Ran asked in puzzlement.

"Nothing. I was just wondering why you looked so…", the precog thought of the best word. "Depressed."

Ran looked down at the table, away from Crawford's direct gaze at him.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

"Do you feel pain when you have visions?"

Crawford let out one cough before settling himself.

"No, I do not. Why?"

"Iie…"

Crawford decided not to suppress the matter and glanced at his watch.

"It's ten. I'll be needing to meet Schuldich in half-an hour. Will you be fine yourself?" Crawford asked as he got up from his seat.

"Don't worry. I'll be fine by myself", Ran replied.

Crawford went over and bent over.

"Follow what your senses tell you. Don't let your mind control you", he whispered.

Ran could feel the hot breath on his face and he flinched, hand reaching up to his ear. He gaped at Crawford who walked off as if nothing happened.

That was embarrassing. Hope no one saw it… he thought smugly to himself.

Ran gave a sigh before he jumped right out of his seat when he heard another person's voice startling him.

"Makoto?" Ran stammered. The other gave him a questioned look.

Oh god. Hope he didn't know who Crawford was, or even mention him…

"What are you doing here?" The doctor asked before looking over his shoulder. "Having tea with your friend?"

'Friend'? No, more like enemy… "Yes." What were the chances of this person knowing Crawford? It wouldn't kill to take him as a friend anyway.

"I see", Makoto trailed off, looking into the distance. "Oh yes. I have a matter to speak with you. Do take a seat."

Both men settled and Makoto took Crawford's seat.

"Your sister. I've spoken to the head. He said the most is six months. I'm sorry, I've done the best I can."

Ran stayed quiet.

"But, I've found someone who can help you. You wish to meet him?"

"If he really can, I will. When?"

"Tomorrow. Six in the evening. Meet here. I'll bring you there."

--

Omi flicked his aching hand while half-way writing his report. So much for projects. His partner went goofing off but thankfully(or not) leaving a nice stack of reference.

"Ah…I'm so going to kill him!" Omi said to no one. Then, one of his pigeons flew into the room and stood on his head.

"Yes, what would you like now?" The blonde asked, reaching up to stroke the bird. The one on his head looked over between the blonde's eyes.

"Olivia. Don't sit on my head. Get off", Omi giggled, but the pigeon refused to budge. Instead, it flapped its wings without taking off, obviously trying to signal something.

Just then, a large crash was heard.

"Whaoh? Ken-kun! Yoji-kun! One of you downstairs fell or something?" Omi shouted, looking out of his door. He thought carefully. Yoji and Ken were in their rooms. He was the closest to the stairs and the elephant feet of theirs could not be missed.

Grabbing a few darts, he slowly made his way down the stairs. Leaning against the wall, he found that it came from the back door. If that was the case, why didn't the security alarm go off? Deciding to deal with that later, he stepped up in silence, standing against the wall beside the kitchen opening.

With one step he twisted, but even before catching anything, two black creatures struck past his face, causing him to tumble to the ground. He gave a yelp when the two things swiped back and forth at a high speed, causing the wind to cut through his skin.

Then, two familiar wing beats came. Pecker and Olivia came into the kitchen and started chasing the two shadows about, sending them away from the blonde.

"Hei! Mo(3)! What are you two doing?" A male voice shouted. The two shadows stood their places. Omi opened one eye to see a redhead, hair with a dark shade.

"Come back!" He ordered. The shadows slipped away and the two pigeons settled on the kitchen counter. The guy went up to Omi and lent a helping hand. "Are you okay? Sorry about those two. They didn't like strangers and end up attacking them."

Omi nodded and got up to his feet. At the door stood three other people in which one had a woman who seemed to be injured.

"Blaue?" Omi spat.

A guy with two black long ear-tails responded.

"That would be correct. Are you Weiss?"

Omi nodded. "But you shouldn't be here until tomorrow. We're not prepared yet."

"We took a short-cut. A very short short-cut", the one holding the woman grinned.

"Anyway", a low voice cut in. "Hey kid, help this woman a little." A guy behind the group said.

Omi led the four into the living and they placed the woman on the couch gently when Ken and Yoji came running down the stairs.

"Hey Omi, I heard a loud—Ah?" Ken stood there frozen.

"This is Blaue Löcher. Well, as you can see. They're earlier than expected…"

"I apologise for the sudden stop-over. I'm sure Manx has told you the situation?" The one with the long ear-tails spoke again.

"Right, but let me deal with her first", Omi said in an apologetic tone. "Yoji-kun, Ken-kun, go get the first-aid."

Yoji pouted but did as he was told, heading off to the kitchen when he rushed out yelling.

"What the hell are those two peasants doing on the kitchen counter!" He barked.

"Those aren't peasants. They're PIGEONS", Omi snapped. "And leave them alone or they'll kill you."

"Not before I cook them for dinner", Yoji sneered. Ken came back to the living room with the first-aid to find Omi whacking Yoji. He sweat-dropped and set the first-aid on the ground.

"So, who's who?" Ken asked as he opened the box.

"I'm Mist, this is Kou, Kazuma and Kenta."

"Ah, the guy with the almost exact name as me", Ken raised a brow at the last guy, who looked back at him in question.

"Name's Ken too."

"Ken two?"

"No. Ken. That small kid's Omi and the other hay wired is Yoji."

"I don't see Ran around", Mist whispered.

"Ran? Who's Ran?" The three Weiss ask in unison.

Mist blinked. "Ran Fujimiya. He got transferred here a year ago."

"You mean Aya?"

"Ran", Mist snapped. "Aya is his younger sister."

"What?" Yoji cut in. "You mean this blue-haired girl who has two plaits by her sides(4)?"

"Yes. That would be his younger sister. He didn't inform you about this?"

The three shook their heads.

"Whaoh, Aya has a younger sister? I must be dreaming", Ken said.

Yoji walked over and gave a knock onto the brunette's head. "You're ALWAYS dreaming, for that matter."

"Ow! Go away you jerk!" Ken yelled and gave a punch to Yoji's knee; weak spot(5).

Yoji began jumping around, holding his knee, ow-ing away.

"You two stop that!" Omi shouted, then sighed. "I'm sorry. Those two have always been like that."

"No surprise", Kou snorted.

"Don't talk about him, you're like that too", Kazuma countered.

Kou growled at him and Kazuma stuck out his tongue at the demon.

The three Weiss stared at Kou who was growling. It didn't sound normal. It sounded like an animal's.

Kenta noticed this and laughed. "You'll have to ignore Kou. He's like that."

"He doesn't sound… human."

Mist laughed. "No, he's not human. You'll have to forgive him for that. Penny for your thought, he's from Ander."

Three gasps followed.

"You're safe just as long as you don't piss him off", Kenta assured them, chuckling.

Kou gave a growl at Kenta who didn't bother about the demon.

"Wouldn't want to", Ken and Yoji mumbled together.

* * *

Yaya! Next chappies! Oh yeas, no more short stories. But that -points above- is a song. Madarin song. Translated. If you wanna hear, state it in the reviews and I'll give you the links. ;)

Anyway, my exams are sadly coming up, so the next few chap may just come in later than usual. Don't mind okays?

For the FYIs:  
(1)--NOT two hundred people! I meant two hundred meters in distance!  
(2)--K-steers. Kou, Kenta and Kazuma all start with K, so I put it for fun. It came from the word musketeer. Get it?  
(3)Hei (黑) meansblack and Mo(墨)(pronoucned as 'more' without the 'r')means ink. Yes, pen ink. These two are shadow birds under Kenta who come out whenever called (or not) to either fight or defend him.  
(4)Yoji recalled the pic in Ran's room.  
(5)I'm sure everyone has weak spots. Mine is tickling of any parts of my legs. Yoji's (laugh) happens to be his knees.

Translations:  
Nebel---Fog  
Hölle drängt---Hell hounds. Thank Mistkeeper for that.

Reviews:  
Einsam: Don't worship me thank you...I don't wanna be a demi-god, seriously. Just be a friend and I'm satisfied. I don't really notice anything 'less room for details but prevents any uninteresting parts'. Truthfully, I'm totally clueless about what I'm doing, but thank goodness I'm still sane.Oh yeah, sorry! -bow bow- Brad hasn't done... 'anything' to Ran yet... -sobby- Don't kill me(yet)! At least let me live until exams come, then you kill me. Revitalise me after exams are over. :P At the moment there aren't any mini history yet, but they'll come sooner or later.  
rebelyell: Urm... Thanks? Here! I'll sacrifice my box of tissues for you! -throws a box- Now I have to go shopping for groceries. T.T  
Neuroticsquirrel: Eh heh... Based on your name... you are...nutty?  
Rubymoon: Ur.. Thanks...? -squats and keeps pressing the reply review button- Ouch. Even I get blisters. I think you get blisters on your blisters.  
Mistkeeper: Finally heard from you! (Ur.. don't mention the error of... -that- to anyone okay? Keep it a secret. -.-lll) Exactly when you reviewed I dumped Kou and placed Mist-chan inside the story. Perfect timing! Hi to Mist-chan and bye to Kou. Kou kinda reminds me of my friend who's being called a baboon. So, shall it go Baboon Kou? -haha- OO If Ken knew it was Schuldich right away, it wouldn't be fun would it? Anyway, the main reason was probably Ken didn't bother to look closely 'cause he was busy fighting Nagi. Plus, it was raining heavily and he could only catch the colour of the person, not the face. (Amazingly, he caught Schu' eyecolor!)


	8. Chapter 15 to 17

Title: Metrepole  
Rating: PG-13. (I'm too lazy to use the new ratings) Rating MAY change depending on the topics  
Disclaimer: I don't own Weiß, but if you find any characters which doesn't belong in the anime, I suppose they're mine...So please, don't complain, don't sue, don't create a racket...  
Pairings: Unknown yet. When decided, I will put up.  
Summary: (This is centred on Ran, okay?) Ran lost his mermory and is trying hard to find it while seeking revenge against Takatori. His secret terms with Schwarz is left unknown to his new assassin members. As he struggle to stay sane for some reason, he encounters situations he had never dared imagine.  
Warning: Shounen-ai to the further chapters (that's a guarantee), maybe some OCC-ness somewhere  
Note to readers: Read and review PLEASE... (puppy dog eyes) I know I would have errors here and there, so please ignore them! Most of the words are translated into German, just to tell you, so please don't come up and tell me they're German, because they are! Okay, please go on to the story. The more reviews I get, the faster I do to be exact. Thanks for coming anyway!

_

* * *

Sound the bugle now  
Play it just for me  
As the seasons change  
Remember how I used to be_

_Now I can't go on  
__I can't even start  
__I've got nothing left  
__Just an empty heart_

_I'm a soldier  
__Wounded, so I must give up the fight  
__There's nothing more for me  
__Lead me away  
__Leave me lying_

_Sound the bugle now  
__Tell them I don't care  
__There's not a road I know  
__That leads to anywhere_

_Without light, feeling I will stumble in the dark  
__Lay right down, decide not to go on  
__Somewhere in the distance  
__There's a voice that calls: remember who you are_

_If you lose yourself, your courage soon will follow  
__So be strong tonight  
__Remember who you are_

_You're a soldier now  
__Fighting in a battle  
__To be free once more  
__That's worth fighting for_

**Trust takes years to build but seconds to shatter**

**Chapter 15: I remember you. Do you remember me?**

According to Manx, Persia's decision was to step down Blaue Locher for at least two weeks to take care of Tiefer much to the group's dismay. During this period the branches in Miami would be restored and a new property would be set up for Blaue Locher. Until then they stay residential with Weiss and assist whenever needed. And because they were going to stay that long, the three Weiss members decided that each member of Blaue could share rooms with one Weiss.

So, according to Omi and Mist who discussed it (privately), he would stay in Ran's room, Kou being in Yoji's, Kazuma in Ken and Kenta's in Omi's.

Everyone agreed except for two people: Yoji and Kou.

"That's definitely out. I'm not sharing my precious room!" Yoji growled and pointed to Kou. "Especially with him!"

Kou snarled back the blonde.

"I'd rather sleep on the couch."

"How about the woman? I wouldn't mind her", the blonde snickered.

A large smack on Yoji's arm told him that it wasn't going to happen.

"No buts, you two! I'm sure you two would get along just fine anyway! Besides, get to know each other a little", Omi said with his arms crossed.

"No thank you, not one from Ander."

"Was that an insult?" Kou hissed. "Well, so sorry human I'm not born in this sluggish world. In fact I didn't even want to come over if it wasn't for some sick ba--"

Mist quickly wrapped both his palms across the demon's mouth.

"Kou, just get along, okay?" Mist said under his breath. A soft grumble which resembled a growl escaped from Kou. "Alright, so it's decided?"

"Are you sure you want to sleep in Aya's room? I mean, he's not going to like it", Ken warned.

Mist let out a laugh. "Ran. You don't know the real him, do you? Don't worry. I'll be fine. So, where is his room?"

Ken glanced towards his other two teammates who returned the same expression.

"If you say so", Omi sighed and led the four up the stairs. _I wonder where Aya-kun went?_

--

Ran stuffed his hands into the pockets of his denim jeans. It was nearing the end of autumn beginning of winter, although oddly he doesn't get affected. The rest don't really get freaked of the cold but true enough he was prone to it during winter. He'd better hurry home and hide under the covers or something. He simply refused to sit by the fireplace with the other three either bickering with each other or making noise.

He removed one hand from the warmth of his pants and brushed away the two ear-tails flying around his face. The darn wind was getting stronger. He might as well run to sweat and fell warmer. Then again, running would be very cold.

He shivered as the wind brushed past his skin, especially the face. Abruptly, he didn't want to but had no choice and sneezed. Okay, the impact of the sneeze caused his nose to hurt. He rubbed his already red nose and frowned.

He finally hit home and went off to the back door through the alley way behind. From below he could hear two chirping noises from the balcony above and suspected it was the two new birds Omi had. Pigeons…

Hesitantly, he didn't open the door yet. His hand was about to touch the doorknob when he breathed in and sneezed again. During the process he forgot the tent-cover like was right above his head and he hit against it.

The redhead writhed and grumbled about his bad luck and went into the house, rubbing his painful head. Just then he noticed two shadows slipping across the ground to either side of him. The black figures rose to the air and became solid, forming two birds.

"You two…"

"Hei, Mo, don't move around the house so much!" A familiar yet unfamiliar voice called out. Kenta rushed into the kitchen to find Ran standing there with his two shadows hovering near the redhead.

"Hey Ran! How are you? It's been some time!" Kenta said happily, presenting his hand for a shake.

Kenta? Ran thought. He felt he knew yet couldn't totally believe this person. He felt like doing so, but in the end didn't take the hand, just stood there staring at the maroon hair guy opposite him.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten me already? Kenta? We've just met less than two years ago!"

Ran kept silent. The memories of years back were missing.

"I don't remember you, so leave me alone", Ran said coldly and brushed past the teen. Kenta watched in slight shock as the redhead left the kitchen. Hei followed the swordsman and Mo remained behind with Kenta, on his shoulder.

"You really forgot who we are, Ran?"

The redhead proceeded up the stairs and padded off into his own room.

"Hey Ran", a voice called out from inside. Ran looked up to see a fellow sitting on his bed, looking at the photos which were placed by the bedside.

"Mist?" He asked.

"Who else? How have you been lately? Your new team seems rather interesting", the other smiled as he placed the photo where they should belong. Mist got up from the bed and walked over to Ran who was looking down at the ground. "Just what happened to Crashers?"

Ran swallowed. "I don't…remember."

"You don't remember?"

Ran shook his head.

"I can't remember anything before. The only thing I do remember is joining Kritiker after my sister was in an accident. I can't remember myself doing anything with Crashers", he hissed.

Mist refrained himself from frowning at the redhead. He walked up and pushed Ran's face up and met eye to eye.

"What happened to Crashers?" Mist asked sternly.

Ran grit his teeth and refused to say anything. This got Mist on his nerves a little.

"Kritiker didn't know what happen and neither Naru nor Yuushi wish to speak up. Only if you can tell us who destroyed Crashers will we be able to hunt the murderer down."

"I know that!" Ran grunted and pushed the hand away. God, he was afraid of looking at Mist straight in the eyes. It…scared him. "I just can't get anything now."

The smaller man conceded defeat and sighed. "Try to. I don't even know why those two refused to speak out the murderer's name."

--

"You can sleep on the floor", Yoji pointed to the ground below.

"Like Hell I will", Kou snapped back.

"I can't believe I have to share with you", the blonde hissed, raking a hand through his wavy hair.

"I don't know why I'm stuck with you", the demon countered.

The two started giving each other their best glare for a minute and the both of them turned their heads away from each other with a 'humph'.

"If you're so good, go share with Ken then! I bet you won't even be able to sleep with all of Ken's snoring. Heck, I assure you even I can hear him from here!"

"YOJI!" Came from the neighboring room.

"KEN!" Yoji shouted back. A few uneven stomping noises confirmed the brunette from the other room was bringing storms over.

Ken came through the bathroom and came into Yoji's room with Kazuma behind.

"What the hell do you mean I snore? I do NOT snore!" Ken shouted, emphasizing the 'not' part.

"Yes you do", Yoji bickered. "You sound worst than a pig!"

Kazuma coughed to prevent himself from laughing and Kou looked pretty pissed.

"Good luck to you sleeping with him", Kazuma snickered at Kou.

The demon snorted back. "You'd better pray you can sleep with those snores."

"You'd better hope I don't come over and stab you", Kazuma threaten.

"You'd better start praying harder my Hell Hounds don't go over and eat you clean to the bones."

"Amateur."

"Childish."

"Jerk!"

"Asshole."

"Odd one out!"

"Human."

"What's wrong being human you freak of nature!" Kazuma roared.

Yoji and Ken stared at the two Blaue members who were quarrelling even worse than them.

"Are you trying to affiliate yourself death?" Kou asked in a low voice. "'Cause if you are, I'd be glad to send you to--"

"Guys!" Kenta's voice broke in as he barged into the room. "Have you seen Hei? I can't find him anywhere", he said in a worried tone. "And he doesn't come back when I call him."

His two teammates shook their head.

"Odd. Mo doesn't want to help me find. He's too busy playing with Omi's pigeons…" Kazuma gave an odd-looking face between worry and slight anger.

"Help you find him, so don't give that face, Ken", Kazuma sweat-dropped. Ken gave a big question mark look at Kazuma. "Not Ken-two, you idiot. I mean Kenta."

"Hey! Well so sorry for having known someone with almost the same name as me!" Ken yelled and ran off to his own room, closing the bathroom's door behind him.

"Ne, Kou can you help?" Kenta asked as he turned to leave.

"Whatever. In a minute or something", the demon sniffed. Kazuma clasped his hands behind his head as he walked out, asking Kenta about when he last saw the bird.

"You and that Kaz guy don't really seem to get along", Yoji said.

"No thanks for noticing. We're both at each other's throats but we always get stopped by either Mist or Ken", he snorted. "So where the hell am I supposed to sleep?"

"Hm… want a mattress?" Yoji suggested.

--

Omi was probably the only one who thoroughly enjoyed Blaue to be around apart from the part where he got attacked. Those two Schattenvögel were only fighting in defense of Kenta, he reasoned to himself. His pigeons did save him too. Although the Schattenvögel weren't made of blood and bones, they still had the ability to attack as if real. He received a few bruises from the attack of the two birds.

He noticed Olivia and Pecker were entertaining one of Kenta's Schattenvögel by walking about, looking interesting. The black bird which resembled a large crow stalked about as well.

Kenta was outside looking for his other bird. He wanted to help, but the older man suggested it would be better if he stayed to watch Mo in case he gets mischievous and start playing rough with his pigeons.

Omi sat on the cushy chair in front of his computer tale, bending over with one hand supporting his chin, the other dangling over his knee. He watched and giggled when Pecker and the black bird collided into each other by accident. The black bird seemed solid enough, both of them were knocked back and the two birds scuttled back on their feet.

He wondered where Kenta was supposed to sleep. There were only three sleeping bags every one was with the older Weiss members. His was to be used when he go to his friend's barbeque tonight. Darn, he was so looking forward to it. Now it was either let Kazuma sleep on his bed or let him sleep on the floor…

Wait. There was still the woman downstairs. He can't possibly let her sleep on the couch. She can rest there, but she would need a proper bed to feel good when she wakes up. He had gotta ask Kenta about this matter. Maybe Yoji would give up his bed for the woman?

Nah. What were the chances? Unless she could even do sex with him…

Omi blushed. How can he be thinking of such things! He grabbed both sides of his head as he felt he was getting warmer.

He gave a small yelp and jumped a little off his chair when he heard a knock and the sound of the door opening.

"Hey Omi, what are we going to do with Tiefer?" Kenta asked as he peeked in. He looked at Omi and the blonde gulped. "Why's your face all red? Are you sick?"

"No! I'm perfectly fine!" Omi stammered, waving his arms frantically. "I'll be going over to my friend's today, so it's either you or Tiefer who's going to take my bed…"

"Oh, then that's no problem. Tiefer can take your bed. I'll just sleep on the couch", Kenta smiled.

"Wait!" Omi called out before Kenta left. "Then again, maybe I won't be going anymore. The sleeping bag should be big enough to last us for one night. We were actually planning to buy mattresses tomorrow but you came a little too early."

"Are you sure? I don't have a problem sleeping on the couch."

"I'm positive", Omi said in an assuring tone.

**Chapter 16: The past which caused chaos**

The night passed oddly fast. Most of the people were staying late up at night. Mist and Ran had just managed to squeeze on the bed together and spent the night trying to grab the covers because of the cold. Ken and Kazuma stayed up nearly up to three just chatting. Even Kazuma and Omi joined in the conversation while Yoji and Kou were spending half the time quarrelling with each other about nonsensical stuff.

In the morning Ran woke up. He blinked at the light which peeked through the curtains. He glanced over at clock on the dresser and stared.

Who the hell turned off his alarm?

The redhead sniffed when the person beside grumbled.

"Why are you up so early?" Mist yawned, stretching his arms above him.

"You switched my alarm off, didn't you?"

"Noisy ticking irritated me. I removed the batteries", he purred and grabbed the pillow. Right. Mist's super-sensitive hearing…

Eyes widening, he snatched his watch off the dresser and stared in dread. It read ten. He was late for his shift! Wait, Yoji and Ken are not working and he remembered Omi said about leaving the shop unopened for the next few days.

Ran gave a sigh of relief and propped back down on the bed.

"You really have no recollection of what happened, right? Why didn't you do look for Yuushi? Or Naru, for that matter?"

"Persia refused my presence to be with them."

Mist pushed himself up on his elbows.

"They're your teammates! Can't you even visit them?"

Ran shook his head in response.

"Okay… Well, anyway. We can get back at the person sooner or later. Those who do the deed of the devil would have it return double the price."

Both assassins' attention turned to under the covers. Ran raised himself off the bed and Mist kept back his legs away from where the small portion of the covers were moving. In one swift move Mist flipped away the covers and Hei was there flapping his black wings.

"When did you get in? Isn't Ken looking for you?" Mist asked the shadow bird.

Hei flew to Ran and landed on top of the redhead.

"Shoo", Ran growled.

Hei didn't budge, just sitting there. Mist held back a laugh.

"He hasn't seen you for a long time. I'm sure he's happy to see you again", Mist chuckled.

"I'm not", Ran grumbled. "Go back to Kenta" he ordered.

Hei flew off and dived towards the ground and slipped under the door easily, going out.

"They last time I saw you, you weren't this mean."

"Then how was I?"

"I don't know. Nicer, a lot nicer."

"I'm not getting any closer to my teammates."

"Teammates? Not friends?"

"I don't deserve to have them. Not when I left my previous ones for the dead", Ran growled. He got off the bed and before Mist could say anything, he was out of the room.

Alone in the room, Mist sighed.

"No one deserves to be alone, Ran."

Outside his room, he stood there quietly as he heard the last line from the one inside. Leaning against the wall beside the door, he jumped when a loud shout echoed through the house. It came from Yoji's room, and Ran didn't even have to guess what the problem would be.

"Jesus! What the hell happened to your eyes!" Yoji screamed, hugging his pillow close to him. Kou growled and got up to stand. "I could've sworn they were blue yesterday!"

"I'm not human", Kou reminded. I don't have any definite eye color asshole."

Yoji stared horror-stricken at the now blood red eyes of the demon. One minute he was sleeping peacefully when a animal-like growl came from Kou. He got up and looked over his bed to see Kou throwing his arm over his eyes. When he removed the arm, Yoji stared straight into red eyes which practically freaked him out.

He was so surprised he was even about to cast a spell over the demon.

"Then what was that freaking scary noise you were making? While sleeping?"

"When the colors change my eyes get a stinging feeling."

"Gee, that's so direct", Yoji snarled back, composing himself. He threw the pillow back on his bed and grabbed a cigarette. Picking up the lighter, he lit the cigarette as Kou stretched, his back making loud cracking noises.

The two of them then heard a knock on the door before Ran came into the room. He looked at the two and it was obvious he was waiting for an explanation.

"That asshole there had to shed his eyes", Yoji said first.

Kou glared at him with his pupils in thin slits.

"He doesn't shed his eyes. The color just changes", Ran shot back at the blonde.

"Oh, so now you're on his side?"

It was Ran's turn to give him a glare. Yoji threw him one as well and Ran turned around, exiting the room and slamming the door, causing the two inside to flinch.

"Pissing Ran isn't a good thing", Kou sniffed.

"What the hell do you know about him?" Yoji snarled back.

"More than you do. Way more than anyone in Weiss would ever know."

"So you're now trying to be Mr. Boast and go around telling every fucking member of Weiss to leave him alone? Well, I don't care a single thing about him at all. I've put up long enough to be even in the same household."

"Oi", Kou hissed.

"Shut up! I'm not done talking! That's guy's PMS-ing day night. He's always staring at someone as if it could kill them!"

The noise of a doorknob unwinding caught Yoji's attention and the blonde looked over to the door. Oh hell. Ran was about to call for Kou to come out when he overheard what his teammate had said.

The redhead had nothing to say. He just walked off, leaving the door half-open.

Yoji cursed under his breath for letting everything slip out of his mouth.

"Good going, brainless shit", Kou commented, proceeding towards the door. "You'd better take those words of yours back where they came from."

"What I said wasn't a lie", Yoji fought.

The demon frowned.

"Ran doesn't deserve to be with people like you."

The door was closed and Yoji uttered. In fury, he clenched his fist tight, shattering the tobacco stick into pieces.

---

So, Yoji thought he could be in charge of him eh? Ran thought furiously. He grabbed his coat and immediately left the house, not caring about Kou when he called for him to stop.

Immediately, once out, he crossed the road and walked off to the direction of the hospital via Oleanders.

/Schuldich/ Ran called out. He waited.

/Ja/ The telepath's reply echoed in his head.

/Are you at home/

/Nein. Nagi is though. The rest of us are at Takatori's office./

Suddenly, the redhead sneezed.

/Oi, you okay/

/Yeah/ Ran covered his nose with one hands as he made his way in the city easily.

/Hm… Your thoughts are a bit jumbled. I think you'd better see a doc/

/I'm fine. I just sneezed, that's all/

/Don't underestimate a common cold/

/…/

/Go over to our place. I'll contact Nagi for you and maybe next time I'll get revenge for you on the blondy/

/Thanks/

Ran gave a relieved sigh. Schwarz's place could turn out to be his second home after all.

He glanced at his watch. It was closing eleven. Maybe he could visit his sister once more before going to Schwarz's place.

Twenty minutes of walking, he finally reached the hospital. He stepped in and the usual nurses greeted him as he walked past. He rode the lift up to the floor of Aya's room and exited when he bumped into Makoto.

"Whoah", the doctor exclaimed as he struggled to catch his falling glasses. "Fancy meeting you here."

The redhead kept quiet, considering whether to walk away. As if he knew, Makoto stopped him before the other left.

"Since you're free now, would you go like to meet the person?"

Now, instead of wondering whether to walk off or stay, he debated whether to follow. Maybe he should wait for later. If he were to go now, he'd probably burst out in anger anytime soon no thanks to Yoji.

"I don't think I can deal with that right now", Makoto said.

Ran turned to him in question. "What-?"

Even before he could finish, a hard fist came in collision with his stomach. For what seemed to be seconds felt like hours as the pain drove in and caused him to black-out.

---

The sound of a female groaning voice caught Omi and Kenta's attention. They both got up from the ground and went to either sides of the bed.

"Tiefer, how are you feeling?" Kenta asked, leaning over.

"Where-" She asked huskily, clear that her throat was dry.

"We're at Weiss's place", he replied.

"Weiss-", she processed. "Ran! Where's Ran?" She asked in a panic. Her hands grabbed onto Kenta's arms before the pain running through her head took over, sending her back to the bed.

"He just went out. What's important about him?" Omi asked, helping her as she wanted to sit up. He passed her a few painkillers which she drank down together with water.

"I need to talk to him. It's regarding Crashers."

Omi froze.

"What about Crashers?" The older guy asked calmly.

"I'm sorry. I can only tell him…"

"Does Persia know?" Omi asked all of a sudden. Tiefer stared at him in shock. The blonde looked back at her in puzzlement. Why had he asked such a question?

Tiefer bit her bottom lip.

"You're sharp, Bombay. He does and I can only speak to you about it if you do not spread it."

The two nodded in agreement and Tiefer took a deep breath.

"I've managed to dig out some information from somewhere. A year ago Crashers were sent to ruin an occasion set up by Takatori. Knowing about Ran's past with Takatori, they disallowed Ran to follow."

"Aya-kun… has something to do with Takatori?"

Tiefer gave a surprised look.

"None of you know about his sister's accident?"

Omi shook his head and the woman gave a disappointed look.

"Aya-kun has never said anything to us about his personal affairs. Not once."

"Anyway, continue Tiefer."

"Halfway through wrecking the party, Ran jumped in out of no where and made his advance to Takatori. Crashers stopped him as they weren't supposed to assassinate being in their group. After that, Ran went-"

"You sure have a lot to say for a woman", a voice interrupted.

The two assassins turned to the balcony to see a six foot person standing outside. He had long silver hair and dark blue eyes. He wore a jacket almost like Ken's mission one which was only halfway down the upper-half of his body, not ever bothering about wearing a shirt inside. Both sleeves were rolled up to the elbows and on the right lower arm revealed a marking of some sort. A pair of jeans started below the hip and a brown cloth-belt-like circled the hem of his jeans.

"Would you like me to close that mouth of yours?"

"Who are you?" Kenta growled.

"Slash, remember it carefully."

"Don't tell me…", Omi gasped. "You're the one who cast slash and burn!"

The silver-haired man cackled. "So you aren't just an average kiddo, eh?"

Suddenly several shadows the shape of birds slid out from Kenta's shadows and swiftly darted towards Slash. The other took no heed to them, just lashing his arm, causing all the shadow birds to disappear.

"Hei! Mo!" Kenta shouted. Two larger birds criss-crossed in front of Slash, catching him by surprise. Slash flinched a step back from the room before managing to make the shadows vanish. When he was done, he was unaware Kenta made his advance and delivered a blow to the other's neck with such force that could break several bones. Slash caught the hand just in time before it came into contact with his neck.

This caught the redhead off-guard and failed to defend himself when Slash sent his knee up his abdomen. The impact caused his to slam straight at the opposite wall of the room.

"Frieren!" Omi shouted. Taking this chance, he went over to Kenta and bent beside him, helping him up. Slash froze for a moment before he jerked his head, releasing himself from the spell.

"It's sad too see how such a talented Takatori like you fail to defeat someone weak like me", Slash shook his head. He took noticed of the confused look of the lad's face and laughed.

"Yes you, kid. A Takatori. Believe it or not."

"I'm not Takatori! I'm Tsukiyono!"

"Words that come out from a weakling's mouth. No wonder your father abandoned you."

Those words shot through his head like bullets through a shield. Slash grinned down at the two on the ground and took a few steps forward to the bed. Tiefer stood there frozen, unable to move a single muscle.

Just then Kou and Mist came in after hearing the unusually loud thud.

Upon seeing the stranger in the room, grasping Tiefer's neck, Kou stretched his hand out, palm facing the attacker. From the middle of his flesh a creature a meter long emerged from his flesh. The head and back of its neck had a metallic covering, sort of like armor. Its wings were also metallic with the same shape as the Hölle drängt ears, a large, curved chip-off. The tail was also metal. The whole body was literally red flesh, not a single piece of skin in sight. Its eyes opened bright red and its beak opened to reveal a set of several rows of teeth and to make a high-pitched craw.

Slash seemed to know this was a dangerous opponent not only because of its size. He immediately let go of the woman and retreated back a few steps. The Hölle Falke charged towards Slash who fortunately decided to back off instead of fighting it. The room had started to get unnaturally foggy and he would be no match against these two. He slipped out the window just in time before the Hölle Falke managed to get a grasp on any part of him, missing its sharp claws by a mere centimeter.

Kou went out to the balcony to find the guy missing, not leaving a single trace of scent behind. It was no surprise. The Hölle Falke soared above, screeching at the lost of its prey. Kou gave a snap of his fingers before the bird dissolved into red dust. The demon turned over to find Mist shaking Omi out of shock while helping Kenta remain conscious.

"Kou, help bring Kenta to Ran's room", Mist called out. Kou snorted and scooped the now unconscious figure and bringing him out. Mist managed to get Omi back into reality who was in a state of confusion.

"What happened? Where's Kenta-san?"

"Kou has him taken care of. Don't worry. A spell or two would have him walking back in no time", Mist said, assuring, as he helped the blonde back onto his feet. "Who was that person?"

"He calls himself Slash and he was the one who cast streich und stirbt on Aya-kun before."

"Slash… Rather makes sense. The marking on his arm here", Mist pointed to the lower arm of his right, "reads Kan(1)."

"You know how to read?"

"That language had vanished from this place decades ago, but I got to learn about it."

"Mist has a liking for languages. Regarding these things, there's nothing he doesn't know", Tiefer added. Omi managed a smile before going into an unusual silence, obviously keeping something in.

"What's wrong?" Mist asked.

"Slash knew I was a Takatori. I don't want to believe it, but he actually knew my past. It's… scary."

"Takatori… The one who caused Ran's sister to go into a coma. I'd suggest you keep this from him or else things are going to get rather ugly."

**Chapter 17: To know a Secret**

Makoto smirked to himself as he stepped into Takatori's office. Across his shoulder was the knocked-out redhead, still unawake. He came into the large room where Takatori Reiji, Masafumi and Hirofumi were with three members of Schwarz and all four of Schrient.

The first reaction of Masafumi and Hirofumi were to stand up to greet the doctor for the first time while Schwarz and Schrient remained unmoving, just staring at the one who had just entered.

"I've brought the Fujimiya I was talking about."

Immediately Schuldich tensed. Fujimiya? No fucking way it could be…

Makoto dropped the person onto the carpeted ground as the body landed with a soft thud. Schuldich almost burst out in anger if it wasn't Crawford who shot him a glare, forcing him to stay put.

Reiji got up from his seat and walked over to the sleeping figure.

"Fujimiya…" he questioned, then his eyes widened. "Ran Fujimiya? The one and only son of my best helper?"

"Yes, so glad to see you remember, Mr. Takatori. Indeed, this is your right-hand man's son. Isn't he worth taking for?"

Schuldich's hand in his pocket clenched tightly. He was so fucking going to kill this guy soon.

/Brad, just who the hell is this guy/

Masahiro Matsuo. I heard he's one of Takatori's gold digger/

/Sure. He just struck gold/

/Calm down/

"Would you like him up now?"

"Do so."

Makoto smiled and rubbed his two forefingers together, oddly forming water. He did it over Ran's face and the redhead began to stir.

Ran flinched at the bright light above. This didn't look like a hospital at all. Slowly, his eyes adjusted to the surroundings as he groaned to wipe away the water falling onto his face. Was it raining indoors?

"Good morning, Ran", Makoto greeted down. Ran took a while to realise where he was and got up.

"Fujimiya! Glad to see you once again, Violet", Reiji laughed, walking over.

Ran hissed as he saw his worst enemy approaching him and wanted to shout for him to stop when no sound came out. He was momentarily stunned as the lost of his voice and reached up to his neck to check his vocals. He tried making a noise yet not a single vibration came through.

"What's the matter, Violet? Have you forgotten me?"

_Schuldich_! He screamed through his thought. The telepath gave no reaction, just standing there, looking at him. _Schuldich?_ He tried again. Still, no response came from the telepath.

On the other hand, hidden underneath, Schuldich gave a shocked report to Crawford.

/Brad! I can't hear anything from Ran! And he isn't speaking/

/You should have no problem communicating with him. What's wrong/

/I can't hear or receive a single thought from him. Judging by his looks he's trying to call out to me/

/Are you sure something's wrong/

Schuldich gave a silent hiss as a negative response.

* * *

Wee! I FINALLY managed to post up. Phew. Oh yeah, I apologise for sooo many mistakes in the chapters. -.-lll I'm getting blur. The next chapter can only be posted up earliest in three weeks or so. Turst me and wait for me okay? -PUPPY DOGGY EYES- Thanks for ALL your support people! 

For the FYIs:  
(1)Kan. Oh yeah, I made chinese a long, long ago language. Well it is! If the world's gonna turn into something like Metrepole, I'm sure there's only going to be one native language. -sob- The word 'Kan' means slash. That's how you get Slash. :) And I don't mean the yaoi term okay? -glare-

Translations:  
Hölle Falke : Hell Hawk  
There are some repeats. Inform me if I missed out anything. I'm so sleepy I could hardly keep me eyes open...

Reviews:  
rebelyell: Thanks for reviewing! You'd better keep up your good work too!  
mistskeeper: Okay... Kou is getting a little too overacting... I have no idea why but it seems to me Kou is like the -strongest- (at the moment. bwah ha ha) in the story. -.-lll Jeez. Better be thankful KOU-JEN-ROU!  
rubymoon: I like Yoji's weakness though. :) It's cute.  
Eisam: Well, looks like now you get to know hwhat Ran's reaction to Takatori was... And that keeps you thinking about who Slash and Masahiro would be. :) Work your brains out. That's the only part of your body that doesn't excercise. :P I'm sorry about the spelling and grammer mistakes. My fingers are getting weaker be the days. I'm just an old hag in her tens... Wait. That's not old, is it?  
darkdranzer: eh... above? -points above- :)  
katten: There you go! Next chappie:)


	9. Interlude II

Pre-Interlude

Just in case you're wondering in -detail- what the guys did the night before with Blaue. :)

-  
Ran and Mist  
-

"Ran, move over a little", Mist said as he pushed back against the other body behind. Ran groaned in irritation when Mist knocked him in the shin by accident.

"Can't you sleep on the floor?"

"I don't want to. Now scoot!" Mist gave a hard push and sent the redhead down to the ground. Ran gave a yelp when he slammed onto the ground and Mist quickly got up from the bed.

"Oopsie?"

Ran growled at the other on his bed.

"Get off."

"No way. I'm not leaving!"

"I'll send you to the couch!"

"Make me!"

The two started hissing and snarling at each other. Finally Mist crossed his arms and sat upright on the bed. Ran picked himself off and pushed the dark-haired person off as he crawled into bed.

Lucky for Mist, he was saved from hitting the ground because of his quick reflexes.

"HEY!" Mist shouted and jumped back onto the bed, bouncing the redhead off.

"Go sleep on the floor!"

"I want the bed!"

And they kept pushing each other off the bed all night…

-  
Yoji and Koujenrou  
-

"This mattress is hard", Kou grumbled as he pushed the bed.

"Pft, don't complain. At least you don't have to sleep on the floor", Yoji snorted.

Kou sniffed and laid back on the bed while Yoji took out a cigarette.

"Don't smoke here", Kou snarled.

"My room, my rules."

"How about I put out that light of yours?" Kou grabbed the cig from Yoji's hand and broke it into two.

"HEY! THAT WAS MY LAST PIECE!"

"Lucky me."

"Last piece from the recent packet. I still have spares", Yoji burst out laughing. Kou gave the blonde a black face and mumbled something.

"Oh yeah, what's Blaue about anyway?"

"Busybody."

"Fine! Don't tell me then!" Yoji snapped and snatched his covers, covering his body from neck onwards and down to his legs.

-  
Ken and Kazuma + Omi and Kenta  
-

"I'm bored", Ken ranted.

"Then go to sleep."

"I don't sleep this early! There's no game tonight and I usually sleep at twelve."

"Are you nuts? You sleep that late?"

"Let's get Omi and the other guy(Ken refused to call his name)!"

"You changed the subject", Kazuma sighed.

One minute later Omi and Kenta were in Ken's room.

"Urm, what are we doing here?"

"Let's play cards!"

"Ken-kun, can't you play by yourself?"

"I'm not a kid. Come on! I'm sure you're bored too!"

"Tired. Just tired", Omi sighed, rubbing his eyes.

"So, what are we playing?" Kazuma asked.

"Heart-attack? Big 2? Fishing?"

"You could play solitaire and I can go to sleep", Omi muttered.

"I heard that Omi", Ken growled. Omi 'eeped' and kept silent.

"Heart-attack. Ah, heck. Might as well play until we sleep like pigs", Kazuma said as Ken distributed the cards.

* * *

Oh yeah. Can any of you support me? Just by reading one of my OC stories? Pretty please! You can state your reviews together here. Surely you'd be kind enough to take a peek? -puppy dog eyes- The link is at my user page!

Another interlude. SIGH... I knew you guys would've thought Ran would go 'shi-ne' when he saw Takatori. But that's too common. Oh yeah, he lost his voice and Schuldich can't help him. What's he gonna do! Wanna try answering? And this interlude is for fun actually. I find it funny Mist and Ran kept pushing each other off the bed.

Reviews:  
Neuroticsquirrel: I know you're confused. I would be too if I were you. But just wait for a while. I have everything nicely planned out already! Yay! Just wait for me!  
rebelyell: Heh heh. Thanks! Be looking forward to see your story!  
mistkeeper: I'll consider letting Kou kill someone. And if you're lucky, Kou! You can eat them! HAHAHA. Anyway I didn't write your name like that on purpose you baboon. Okay, so his eyes turn red ONLY when he's angry. How about I change it to pink? -drool- Yes, I know Kou you're going to kill me.  
Soumoul: Whaoh. Calm down there! I don't want any of my ready going haywire now, do I?  
katten: I had to stop there because I needed to sleep. Truthfully, that's an imcomplete chapter but I wanted to post it up asap. You'll know what happens to Ran in the next chapter.


	10. Chapter 18 to 20

Title: Metrepole  
Rating: PG-13. (I'm too lazy to use the new ratings) Rating MAY change depending on the topics  
Disclaimer: I don't own Weiß, but if you find any characters which doesn't belong in the anime, I suppose they're mine...So please, don't complain, don't sue, don't create a racket...  
Pairings: Unknown yet. When decided, I will put up.  
Summary: (This is centred on Ran, okay?) Ran lost his mermory and is trying hard to find it while seeking revenge against Takatori. His secret terms with Schwarz is left unknown tohis new assassin members. As he struggle to stay sane for some reason, he encounters situations he had never dared imagine.  
Warning: Shounen-ai to the further chapters (that's a guarantee), maybe some OCC-ness somewhere  
Note to readers: Read and review PLEASE... (puppy dog eyes) I know I' would have errors here and there, so please ignore them! Most of the words are translated into German, just to tell you, so please don't come up and tell me they're German, because they are! Okay, please go on to the story. The more reviews I get, the faster I do to be exact. Thanks for coming anyway!

**

* * *

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**It is easy saying it but harder to mean it.**

**Chapter 18: Untitled**

The whole team of Weiss and Blaue sat in the living, thoughts filled with anger and confusion. There were several mind boggling questions swirling in their heads, but first thing's first.

The one feeling the most uncomfortable was Omi. He feared the rest would despise him because Slash said he was part of their enemies' family. He wanted to lock himself up in the room and pray everything would fade away like dust in the winds. On the couch, fists clenched, he looked down at his feet. Ken sat beside him, looking rather furious. Yoji stood behind and looked no better.

Blaue was much calmer although it was obvious they were pretty much unhappy. Mist sat at the single-seat to the right arms crossed with Kou hanging off the arm rest. Tiefer got the other lone couch and Kenta sat on the arm rest to her left looking away while Kazume laid his elbows on the back of the couch, facing the ceiling and in one hand a cigarette.

Everyone except Kou felt awkward and didn't dare to make any noise, just brooding in their own thoughts. In the end Kou got ticked off by the silence which was starting to irritably haunt the whole household and growled to show his irritation. Mist finally sighed.

"We're not going to sit here all day are we?" He asked.

The rest looked at him a second or so before turning away. Mist sighed once more and got off the cushioned seat.

"I say we just put this matter aside for the moment. We have more important things to do."

"What the hell would be more important in a time like this?" Yoji snapped.

Piercing yellow-green eyes shot at emerald's.

"In case you haven't noticed, Ran is no where to be found and a psychotic guy is on the loose. Don't you think we have to deal with these first?"

"Aya could just be out for a walk like usual and not returning. He did that not too long ago", Ken grumbled.

"Still…", Mist was cut short by Kou who grabbed his arm.

"It's up to them to decide. We don't have to interfere, Mist."

"Yeah, don't", Kazuma added. "I doubt it matters to them if their leaders was found by the walk side _dead_", he grinned.

It was unexpected as a sharp blow of the fist went across Kazuma's right cheek. He stumbled a step to the left. Several gasps echoed the room while one

"Shut the fuck up asshole!" Yoji roared.

Kazuma reached up to brush away the slight bit off blood from the corner of his mouth.

"For an assassin, you're mighty weak", he sneered. Immediately he returned the favor off punching straight into the blonde's face. It was only his quick reflexes that Yoji able to dodge it. Unfortunately, Kazuma anticipated it and swiped his leg across, catching the other at the side of his head, sending him crashing to the ground.

Deciding to help his comrade, Ken lunged at Kazuma, grabbing him round the neck. Omi shouted for them to stop but the three were deaf to his cries. Yoji had gotten up and tking advantage of Kazuma being held down, drove his knee into his gut.

"Stop it the three of you!" Kenta yelled. "Fighting like this won't benefit us in any way!"

"Ken, it's okay", Mist said out loud. Kenta bit his lower lip as he watched his step-brother throw Ken off and slamming against the floor below.

"What do you mean it's okay? Why aren't you even trying to stop them?" The youngest cried.

"Don't worry. They'll stop in time", the demon answered for him.

Five minutes later, each party ended with several bruises and cuts. Ken had got back his broken arm state and Yoji has just scarred himself across his check. Kazuma was bruised all over and especially on his stomach where the two assassins had randomly attacked.

"Alright, time out boys", a familiar voice shouted. Everyone turned to the doorway where Manx stepped in, dressed in a sleeveless white top and jeans(one which the guys rarely see her in). "Just thought I'd drop by and what do I see? The two groups fighting with each other. What in Heaven's went wrong?"

Yoji spat aside a bit of blood. "Ask that jerk."

"What? Want another piece of me?" Kazuma growled and Manx swung her handbag, whacking him on his head. "Ow! Watch it lady. Just because you're a woman doesn't mean I won't do anything to you!"

"Kaz, stop. That's Manx", Mist warned.

Kazuma looked at Mist before turning to female redhead. "You mean you're Persia's-"

"Yes."

"Oh my god you're so much prettier up close! Can I have your number?"

"Hey! That's what I do!" Yoji barked. Ken groaned at the two who were now babbling with each other.

"Alright cut it out. I heard you got cut up rather bad, sis", Manx said as she walked over to Tiefer.

"Bad, but not too bad. At least I don't get any marks left", she winked.

"So do I still get your number?"

WHACK.

--

His throat was burning for some reason. Maybe that was the reason he couldn't speak. No matter what, he can only hope is he attacked Takatori, Schwarz may just no advance to him. Reaching to his boot, he put out a knife which was no bigger than his hand and launched at Reiji.

Reiji's two sons called out and Schrient was about to attack when the doctor behind caught him easily, twisting his arm back. The pain which shot through the muscles of his arms were excruciating and the awkwardness position of his arm caused him to drop his only weapon.

"You don't look too happy to see me. I wonder why."

"He's unable to speak, Mr. Takatori. During the explosion he lost his voice", Makoto lied.

/What a sick lie/ Schuldich hissed in his mind.

"Pity, pity. I was hoping he could tell me who caused the death of his parents so I could help avenge him", Takatori sighed, brushing his beard. "Can you write out what you wish to say?"

Ran glared at him. What rubbish. He was the one who killed his parents. If he was going to write, he'd write 'I'll kill you'. He was presented with a piece of paper and pen. Makoto grinned as he forced Ran to hold the pen.

Was he really going to write 'I'll kill you'? It sounded… stupid. Maybe he should ask why he wanted to kill them. He set to writing, but once the pen's tip touched to paper, he felt at loss. How-?

"Maybe it has affected your thinking as well", Makoto said in a sad tone. The redhead was too shocked to move. What was wrong with him? He could neither speak nor write. The Kanji letters were blank. It was impossible. He's been through all sorts of Japanese writing. Even those written in the historic ways. It would be just a few simple words, but he was totally spaced. "Well that would be a problem, wouldn't it?"

Ran threw the pen at the doctor in the same format Omi would, but Makoto caught it with ease.

"Be nice now. We wouldn't want you to get hurt, do we?" He glanced over at Schwarz.

/Crawford, I've got bad news./

The precog looked side ways.

/This asshole here totally shielded his thoughts. I can't pick anything out of him/

Takatori grunted. He walked over and grabbed Ran by the arm.

"Schuldich. Can you get anything out of this guy?"

The telepath pretended to search through his mind and for a moment there Ran was afraid he may say out anything. Despite being friends, an order was still an order.

/Crawford, what am I supposed to say that won't hurt Ran/ He asked anxiously.

/Wonder why Takatori wanted to help in avenge. It was said after all that Reiji was the one/

"He wants to now why you want to help him in avenging his parents."

Reiji gave a laugh.

"Well, that's easy. Your father has helped me through. He was the best right-hand man I ever had! With my power it is under my order anyone be executed. Schuldich, care to pry and look for the culprit?"

Schuldich nodded.

/Now what? Shout 'Oh my god it's you, you old fart'/

/If you want your head rolling on the ground/

"No. He has no recollection. He is still searching for the culprit."

"Sad. Don't worry. We shall find out who it is."

"What should I do with him now?"

"Bring him to the guest room. He still looks as if he's in shock. Schwarz, escort my friend."

That moment Schwarz flared. Who the hell wanted to be _his_ friend?

"Who the hell is your friend!" Ran shouted. Reiji stared in surprise.

"You can speak?"

"I'll kill you! Son of a bitch!" Ran broke free of the ex-soldier and raced towards the Takatori. Immediately, Schuldich was in front of the redhead and grasped him tightly.

"Calm down", he hissed.

"Let me go Schuldich!"

Straight away Reiji sensed something amiss.

"Schuldich, you know this person?"

"No. He heard you calling me before. He must've guessed it was me. Not bad", he grinned evilly, hoping that Reiji would buy his act.

"Well, it would be a laugh if he knew your name anyway."

"I'll bring him to the guest room to calm him down."

Schuldich had to literally carry the redhead on his shoulders to prevent him from running back to the room and into his grave. Ran managed to let him(luckily), only grumbling once in a while. When they reached the room, Schuldich dumped him on the sofa and sat beside him.

"Sorry", Ran said softly.

"For what?"

"I almost gave-urmph!"

Schuldich clasped a hand over his mouth. and hissed.

"Well if you give me any problems I'll just have to kill you", he hissed. Ran was about to yell at him when he caught Schuldich's twitching his head to the side as if signaling him to something. He tilted his head up and noticed a camera moving back and forth the room.

Ran nodded and Schuldich stood up. "Don't cause any problems. The door's lock may be spoilt, but that doesn't mean you escape that easily. The building is alert 24 hours, so your chances of escaping is low. The lift and stairs have cameras. And if you do try and escape…" Schudlich walked over and placed both hands on either side of the redhead. " I'll be first to find you."

Ran looked shocked and if the telepath could, laugh out loud as his expression.

Schuldich left the room and closed the door. Ran was close to smirking at himself. He'd have to thank Schuldich later. He's been given quite come clues to the building. Plus when Schuldich leaned over, he managed to get his hand-knife under his thigh. Hopefully one he leave Schuldich would really come and find him.

Acting normal, he gave a sigh and stood up, placing his hands in his pockets, at the same time keeping the knife hidden. Now he had to think of a way out.

**Chapter 19: SPIE**

"We can get back to our normal missions since Kritiker has deftly handled the case of the other teams murders. Blaue, you will be sent back to Miami in about half a month's time. Is that okay?" She glanced over at Tiefer, who nodded, meaning she got the order.

"Now. We have to pick off where we stopped. The Riot building has ceased its evil intentions and will be checked off the list. Now you have a more interesting mission. Many people age between sixteen to twenty-three gone missing. It was said they were picked from pubs, bars and lounges.

For the past two weeks, fifty-two bodies were found along the rivers which cut through the Schweigsamer Wald. Their bodies were shot with guns and torn apart by what seems like animals so we believe there are a few out there are doing what we call 'Human Hunting'. Your job now is to eliminate those who prey on the innocent."

Manx paused. "Blaue, do you wish to participate? Though the assassination need not be done by you-"

"I don't mind", Kou cut in. "I'm rather bored and hungry…"

Weiss stared at him.

"You eat humans?" Ken asked with a disgusted look on his face.

"Humans and chickens don't make a difference. They just taste better raw."

The three sweat-dropped. This guy had better not be messed with for sure.

"Me too", Mist said. The three's jaw reached the floor. Kou they could understand because he's a demon but Mist? Absurd.

"I mean participate, although half a person may be enough to fill me…" Mist noticed the shocked and about-to-die look on Weiss. "I'm kidding."

"Anyway", Manx coughed. "I suppose all of you will participate? In that case Blaue, I shall use your sub code names in order not to confuse the rest."

Sub code names? Oh. The flowers ones…

"Remember each others. I'll go through once. For Weiss, Aya is rose, Yoji is cattleya, Ken is gentian and Omi is freesia. For Blaue, Mist is iris, Kou is begonia, Kazuma is sunflower(laugh) and Kenta is azalea. Oh, by the way where's Aya?"

"Out", a few voices chorused.

"Well, I'd never."

--

Ran managed to slip out of the room being seen, so now hopefully he could get Schuldich to lead him out of this place. But if the lifts and stairs had cameras, how was he supposed to get down? Maybe be could try getting around alone. It shouldn't be much of a problem, right?

Those watching the guest room should take a while before they notice he was missing thanks to the toilet by the door. He got into the lift which held another person. Bad luck for him, it was a security guard. The other looked at his suspiciously as he didn't seem to work here. He was about to open his mouth and ask when Ran threw him out of the lift in one swift move. The guy cried out when he slammed against the ground.

Quickly, the redhead pressed the button to close the door when the guard managed to rush in. In the small area Ran could only engage to a hand-to-hand combat which he was fairly skilled at. The guard however, was much more beefy and may just take him down.

One punch was thrown at the redhead but he avoided it easily. He may have the strength but lacked the speed the redhead had. Giving one hard push, the guard slammed against the wall of the lift, causing it to jerk with intensity. Ran noticed that several buttons were pressed when the guy pushed himself up. The closest floor would be ten away. He just had to hold off roughly half a minute.

Getting up with a groan, the guard charged, which was a big mistake in such small area. Ran shifted aside and he went smashing his face right into the wall, causing another strong impact to the lift.

Finally, he reached the floor and without looking, just stepped into the room before. He heard a sneer from the guard behind and turned. He caught sight of his walky-talky which had a bright re button flashing. He must've called for security back-up. Before the redhead could react, the lift was closed shut and he had no other means of escape.

With caution he turned around to a large area. It was pitch black. He could hardly see his hand in front of him, but slowly his eyes adjusting and he could see a few feet away.

This didn't seem like an office. He walked ahead. Within three steps he felt something was wrong. There was something… on the other side of this black arena calling him. It was asking him to approach. He took a step forward, looking around. Slowly, he lifted his other foot and took another step forward.

--

Schuldich felt heard Ran slipping out, but he couldn't leave now. Reiji might just get suspicious. He heard the lift ring and wondered if the redhead went through. Nah, it couldn't be. Ran may want to get out but he was less likely to take such risk.

But something was edging in his mind, very irritatingly. It was shouting at him to leave the friggin' room and check up on Ran.

So he did. He excused himself, saying he needed to go and made his way down to the guest room just further down in the hall.

He knocked on the guest room door and opened, to his left the toilet door closed.

"Oi, you in there?" Schuldich asked, knocking on the door. No answer came.

He opened the door to find no one.

"Shit…"

He dashed outside when three guards ran past him in a hurry. He grabbed one of them and asked what was going on.

"Intruder, and he had just went into the Black Room. Seems like he activated the defense system", he cackled.

Schuldich's eyes went wide with horror/

--

Omi sighed in relief as he was now in his room. Hopefully none of his friends would bring up the subject of him being a Takatori. It frightened him. To be a member of the Takatori was one of the things he would dread. Lying down on his bed, he 'oofed' when one of his pigeons jumped on his stomach. He groaned as he got up on his elbows.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

Just then there was a knock on the door.

"Omi? It' me. Is it okay to go in?"

"Yeah."

Kenta entered with a smile on his face. Omi forced a smile back and watched as Kenta sat at the edge of the bed beside him.

"Are you still brooding about it?"

"What?"

"About what that guy… Slash, was it? What he said about you being-"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"In that case, I'll make it as short as possible then. Just so you're wondering if you really do happen to be a Takatori, you need not worry about becoming bad like them."

"I'm not… worried…"

Kenta chuckled. "Of course not. You're brave, aren't you?"

Omi kept silent.

"Well, I guess if you want me to stop talking about it, I won't say any more." Kenta got up when Omi grabbed his hand.

"Wait!"

"Yes?"

"Why… do you sound so sad?"

The older man looked surprised for a moment before smiling back.

"You're no ordinary kid, are you?"

"Tell me…"

"No. I won't tell you yet. It would make you feel very uneasy, that I can be very sure off. Your state now may or may not become like mine."

Omi frowned but decided not to press further.

Downstairs Manx and Tiefer were having a one-to-one talk in the mission room privately. Yoji and Kazuma were –apparently- glaring at each other. Ken was fixing his motorbike at the garage. Mist and Kou were with Kazuma and Yoji in the living room.

"Will you two cut it out already?" Mist snapped. The only helped to keep the two silent for two minutes before they start bawling over other matters like borrowing a cigarette. "Gods, I think I'm going to go deaf…"

Kou grinned. Mist looked awfully cute when he fumes. However something else caught his attention. He turned to stare blankly at the air. Mist noticed the sudden behaviour and turned.

"Kou?"

Just then, something resembling a sonic boom ran through his head. It was almost like a sudden spear striking across your brain. Mist hissed as the pain subsised a few seconds later. Opening his eyes, he found Yoji and Kazuma in the same state, holding their heads.

"What the hell was that!" Yoji hissed.

"Kou!" Mist turned to his teammate. The demon had his teeth gritted, facial expression of pain. "Kou, what happened?"

Kou gave no reply.

"Kou?"

Suddenly the demon gave a roar, sounding like a lion. Kou dashed out of the house and not caring about the passers-by, stretched his wings out, tearing through his top.

"Kou!" Mist shouted as he ran to the door. Kazuma and Yoji did the same, shocked as well.

"Mist! Kaz! Why did Kou yell?" Kenta asked worriedly as he descended the stairs with Omi behind.

"Did you two feel it? Something like a headache mixed with a sonic boom", Kazuma cut in.

Reluctantly, the two nodded. Manx and Tiefer were up as well, asking what in the world was going on.

"He's heading towards Groß…" Mist mumbled.

"Why is he heading there!" Manx shrieked. It was obvious then that something bad was going on.

"We have to stop Kou for whatever reason he may be doing. You guys get to Groß as fast as you can. I'm heading off first", Mist said.

Yoji and Omi went 'what?' when Mist shifted his posture to a hunched way before in a blink of an eye his body turned black. A huge panther stood before them and below its left eyes had the same red three streaks which Mist had on his face. Around the panther's neck was a collar with the teeth markers of those around Mist's eartails.

"Hurry up!" Kazuma shouted, snapping the two blondes out of their thoughts. They went off, not bothering to look back as the black panther went out the door, giving one leap before landing on the roof of the building opposite them.

The four burst into the room and scared Ken to his wits.

"Jeezs! I though a riot came up or something!" The brunette cursed.

"We're heading towards Groß", Kazuma said before getting himself on a bike.

"Hey! That's mine!" Ken yelled.

"I'm sure I can work it faster than you do. Ken!" Kazuma shouted. Kenta immediately hopped on behind. "Catch ya later!" Kazuma grinned as he shifted the bike on the hind wheels before taking off to the streets.

"Big fleshy deal. I can do that too", Ken grumbled.

"Ken-kun! Let's go!" Omi shouted from Yoji's Seven. Ken scampered off and jumped into the jeep.

"Take care of the house ladies!" Yoji bid as he stepped on the accelerator. The two women standing at the entrance winked before watching them ride off.

"Well, I guess it's our house now."

"Let's make it messy for them."

--

Schuldich immediately went to find Crawford. Oh hell. What was he going to do? Crawford's going to kill him, then bake him crispy and feed him off to the road-side beggars.

/CRAWFORD/

/No need to shout. What's wrong/

/Ran! I think he went to the Black Room/

/Are you positive/

/Of course I-/

His message was cut off when a pain shot through his brain. He dropped to the ground on his knees, hissing and crying out. He took a deep breath before he realized that the pain reduced.

/Oh god… that felt like shit…/

/Schuldich, can you figure out what happened/ Crawford asked, sounding rather uneven.

/Don't tell me you got that headache thin/

/Everyone in the room was affected./

/What the hell's going on/

/As if I don't want to know/

--

"I'm am SO going to kill Kaz later!" Ken swore. "If he dare get a scratch on my bike I'll pulverize him and turn him into minced meat to become fertilizer!"

"Oh shut up Ken. Hey you think you can get ahead to them? Using Schatten or something. They're obviously going to beat us to Groß."

"Yeah, if you want me to play 'hop on the cars until you fall and go 'BANG'", Ken muttered.

"We'll take a short cut! Turn right!" Omi yelled.

Yoji followed, giving a sharp turn which nearly had Ken flying off from his seat.

"Are you insane?"

"Left!"

"Argh!"

--

Mist hopped building to building with ease. Kazuma and Kenta were not far behind, following him which he caught sight of Weiss making a detour around the alleys.

Kou was racing towards Groß as if it meant a lot to him in which now it seemed like it. In about estimated two minutes Kou would've reached Groß, but once he reach what was he going to do?

Out from the corner of his eyes he caught something large like a tiger, racing past him as a quick speed before leaping off into the air, pouncing on Kou.

Mist roared to warn, but the demon seemed to have noticed it already. Kou dived and the tiger went down as well. Suddenly he heard the sharp fickle sounds of lighting before a bolt of blue electricity shot down a few feet in front of him. He turned and found two people standing on the building three blocks away.

One of them was about Omi's size, black hair wearing a grey jumper and jeans. The other was much taller, slightly past six feet. Dark brown hair highlighted with yellow, blue and red. He was wearing a sleeveless black top and around his neck were chains and a dog tag.

Mist hunched and returned to his human form.

"Who are you?"

"You can call us SPIE", the taller man grinned. "You can call me Ele."

**Chapter 20: Ran **

Mist gasped as he saw two others near where Weiss was. One was Slash and the other was a guy wearing a doctor's coat. He glanced over at the duo and saw a writing on the brunette's neck. It was in the same form of writing but it was a different word and when translated meant 'element'.

"What do you want?" Mist growled.

"Your hides", Ele sneered and charged, flicked his hand out. Once again there was the sharp fickle noise and a bolt of electricity struck the place Mist was standing (he shifted away).

The younger kid took no notice and Mist guessed he was the one controlling the tiger. He dodged out of the way when suddenly a ring of fire encircled the building he was on.

"So you control the elements eh?" Mist sneered.

"Very good guess. Would you like to guess my partner's?" Ele asked as he charged. He was slightly clumsy and Mist managed a blow across his face with his fist. However, Mist hissed and pushed Ele away. He glanced at his fists. The skin on his knuckles were torn and a bit of white told him it was his bones.

"I see. You know elements, but you forgot. Fire, lighting, water, earth and silver."

"Yes, I have to admit. Those are the Chinese elements, aren't they?"

--

"Oh my god I feel like puking", Ken moaned.

"Stop being a baby already", Yoji growled as he swerved to avoid the trash cans. Up on the roof he saw a person whose palm was facing them. Suddenly the ground beside them were left with two large cuts.

"That's Slash!" Omi shouted.

"Glad you remembered me, Takatori", the silver-haired man laughed.

"You guys go ahead! I'll deal with him", Ken shouted as he leapt from the jeep. Landing on top of the room, Slash was about to stop him when Ken delivered a scratch across his face with his bugnuks.

Slash retreated a few steps back, holding his bleeding cheek.

"You're opponent's here", Ken hissed. "You'll have to get through me before them."

--

"Kazuma", Kenta whispered.

Kazuma turned up to find a guy dressed in a white coat.

"Then let's deal with him. Hold on", Kazuma said before pulling the bike on its hind wheels and riding vertically up the wall. "Get ready to jump."

Once they rode off the wall, Kenta jumped off the bike and landed on the roof while Kazuma went to the other road and sped off.

"I saw your keen eyes.", Kenta said.

"I'd never thought you'd get me", the other smiled.

"Do introduce."

"I'm from SPIE, Poison. Glad to meet you."

"Blaue, Azalea."

--

Schuldich cursed himself. For what the reason he didn't know. He just felt like it. He made his way down to the floor of the Black Room. When he reached, there were five guards staring in horror into the pitch blackness.

The telepath thought oddly. They shouldn't be shocked to… see a dead body. Hell, if there was really a dead body(touch wood) and it was Ran's… he'd murder himself.

Cautiously, he walked up, praying it wasn't him.

"Ran? Ran, answer me", Schuldich said out loud. "Oh god, please no… Ran! Aya, whatever you respond to, just reply me!"

"I'm not… Aya…" A low voice said. Schuldich turned, carefully not to exceed the steps allowed.

"Ran?"

From the darkness approached someone. At the glimpse of red Schuldich knew immediately it was Ran.

"Ran! God I thought you were dead meat! What-"

But the person who came out _wasn't_ Ran. He looked like Ran, but his hair was long. Just then the memory of the person who broke his arm came to him.

"Who the hell are you?" Schuldich hissed.

"Ran", the person said softly. His head lifted up and through the darkness, the violet eyes of once loneliness turned to cold, bloodthirsty ones.

* * *

OMG! I UPDATED! AFTER CLOSE TO TWO MONTHS! YAYYYYYYYY! -ahem- Okay! Next one up! And SPIE are out! Try guessing the last guy's powers. The clue is their powers are their codenames! Oh yeah, one question. Do you guys want me to do Blaue's past? Like what I did to Weiss? Answer me! 

No FYI's, but here's something:

These are the chinese sybols encarved onto SPIE's bodies. :)  
Slash:砍  
Poison: 毒(Did I show before?)  
I have to find the other two. -.-lll

Translations:  
Schweigsamer Wald: Silent Forest. Lalalala

Reviews:  
Einsam: Same. tens is still teens. oh anyway...  
missen: cough... C...Collar? urm... I don't know... maybe next time?  
rubymoon: ... right. weird... thanks...


End file.
